The Limits of Pain
by iSaint
Summary: Mature/AU/All about Rock Lee, who is picked up by Danzo for Root, heralded as a genius, and kicks brand new ass. Epic length, hopefully. Strong character building, strong relationships, might let readers influence plot. No pairings set, many considered.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1: To Kick a Rock

The little rock bounced off the wrapped foot of a small boy, his black hair unruly, large eyebrows scrunched up in concentration. He had been kicking this rock for a while now, and his foot was starting to hurt, but he paid it no mind. He ran up to it again, kicking this time with his left foot instead of his right, eliciting a small grunt from his mouth. He was getting better, he thought, not really sure how to measure his progress in kicking the rock across the street. All around him people were going about their day, rushing to a store, going home to their families, and a few, a select few, were wearing forehead protectors of a dull silver, the Konoha leaf emblem scratched upon it. Those weren't walking, no they were practically flying above the small boy's head, leaping from roof to roof, as if such a thing were totally inconsequential. The boy had spent hours and hours just watching them, but right now he didn't have the time, he needed to be able to kick this rock much, much, much harder.

The boy ran up to the rock again, pouncing upon it with all the might of his four year old frame. He extended his leg back, as far as it would go, and swung it, growling with determination only to find himself on his back, a small cloud of dust rising around him in the middle of the busy street. No one paid him any mind, but the stampede of feet did manage to kick his rock away, sending it who knows where. The boy picked himself up, holding his butt and whimpering slightly, more over the loss of the rock and the unfairness of it, rather than the physical abuse he had put himself through. He looked at where the rock used to be, it having been untouched by his swinging foot, despite his best efforts. "Well, whatever," he thought, "I'll just go get a bigger rock, that one was getting far too easy to kick anyway." He shrugged a bit, and then set out to go to the rocky field that had become his second home, not that he really had a first home.

Making his way through the crowds, the small boy known as Lee, no surname, he was just an orphan, tried his best to keep his head up, not wanting the dust being kicked up by the adults around him to get into his face, making it already dirtier than it had been. He had noticed pretty early on that clean children were less likely to get kicked out of stores into the rain or pointed and laughed at for being an orphan, and, if you were lucky and very clean, you could get random sweets and warm smiles from the adults that, for the most part, ignored those not within their immediate vicinity or family. He had been a bit shocked at first, when he had first seen a small child trip, fall, and start crying, only to be picked up and hugged by a warm and soft looking mother. Lee didn't have a mother, but he could tell, just from that small interaction, that having one must be pretty amazing. Those hugs looked like they could cure you of any malady, whether it be hunger, hurt, or the elements themselves. He had almost run to that small child and his mother himself, wanting to share in their love and acceptance, but an errant leg had "accidentally" kicked him to the wayside, and as he had looked up he had seen a man, not evil, just bored, smirking at him and then rolling his eyes to the mother hugging her child. He had wagged a single finger at him, totally silent, but Lee didn't think that he had ever been so completely stopped and silenced by any other action. What the man had said had been clear, "That is not for you. You are not a part of this." And Lee, as a child can only do, had believed it, and he had made it a part of himself.

And so, from then on, it had been him and the other orphans in one group and the families and villagers in the other. That was how it had been until he had seen a Ninja at least, a Shinobi, one of the protectors of the Village. They were always in the shadows, even in the brightest moments of day, they seemed to move behind others, never in the forefront, and they were separate. They weren't with the villagers, they moved among them, but they weren't OF them. There was a difference, and that difference was painfully obvious for one who existed in a similar state, but unlike him and the other orphans, there wasn't the same pain in the eyes of the Ninja, they were above it, they floated on top of it seemed. It was certainly there, beneath the surface, but they were untouchable to its effects, not that he didn't see some Ninja in pain, coming back from missions, but it was a different quality, he couldn't put it in words, in fact he had never really thought about it, but it was something he internalized almost automatically. He just knew that that was what he wanted. He wanted the pain to stop.

Lee looked around suddenly, jerked out of his own thoughts and memories as he came upon the rocky field. In the middle was a huge boulder, easily twice his own size, and he glared at it. It was the object of his goals, and no stupid rock was going to stop him from his dreams and hopes. He glared once more at the rock, then started searching for a much more manageable sized one to kick around. He finally found one that seemed suited for him. The one before that he had been kicking around had been the size of his fist, and it had been the third or fourth rock that he had taken to kicking. This one though was much bigger, and Lee was okay with that, kicking this much larger rock would probably be brutal and time consuming enough that he wouldn't have time to think back upon that mother and her child. He didn't like to think about that, it made his insides hurt, and while he was used to getting kicked, or falling, or having older, bigger orphans beat him up, there was something about this inside pain that was so much worse. He shook his head, no use worrying about that, maybe it was serious, but dwelling on it did nothing, however, kicking this rock would get him closer to his dream! This particular rock was a scratchy granite, about the size of his head, maybe twice or three times as big as the last rock. Lee appreciated the size of it, thinking that if he could kick this around easily in a week or two, then up the size of the rock again by two or three times, then in about 5 rocks, maybe, he might be up to the boulder. Lee eyed the rock carefully, having developed a healthy appreciation of the hardness and weight of rocks when he first started. Lee wound up his leg, planted his forward foot, and let it fly.

If one had been watching the rocky field that existed right by Training Ground #23 they would have been amused at the frantic hoping of a small boy, clutching his right foot with tears streaming down his face.

Lee was crouching down by his rock, aptly named Alexander (aptly being a subjective term for Lee), staring at it with a hard gaze. He had been kicking Alexander around for about two weeks, and while his toe had healed enough for him to continue kicking, it had been a clean break, luckily, he had stopped making progress with his kicking power. He was only able to make the rock go so far, about 5 feet before the forces of gravity took over and firmly stuck the rock to the ground. This was not good enough in Lee's mind, he had managed to get the last rock to fly a lot farther than 5 ft, almost 20 ft sometimes. But no matter how hard Lee swung his leg, it seemed like the rock wouldn't move more than just 5ft or so. Lee stared harder at Alexander, wondering what had changed.

'Okay', Lee thought, 'The rock itself probably hasn't changed. Alexander would let me know if it was getting fatter', he grinned at Alexander, 'So maybe it is me? Maybe I am getting weaker? But that doesn't seem right, I swear I can kick it for longer, just not farther, and by now I can barely feel the top of my feet.' After he had broken his toe, Lee had taken to getting his toes far away from the place of impact, starting to hit the rock with the top of his foot, like he had seen some of the older kids do with a ball. Lee stared at the rock again, bringing himself out of his thoughts of the older kids having fun. 'Okay, well it probably isn't the rock, so it must be me. And I don't think I am getting weaker... but how can I test that?' Lee thought hard for several more minutes. He was getting impatient, sure Lee could think, heck he caught on pretty fast even, picking up the lessons at the Orphanage pretty quickly. However, he had gotten pretty used to just kicking stuff, and he wanted to go back to that, he needed to reach his dream soon, dammit! 'Oh, oh! That should work!'

Lee ran off to the rocky field that he visited frequently, carrying Alexander under his arm like a doll. Running to the field, Lee noticed that he also seemed a bit faster? Maybe? Hard to tell, he wasn't really one for keeping track of stuff like that. Regardless, once he got there, Lee started looking for a rock that was similar to the size that he had used previous to Alexander. Once he found one that was, by approximation the same size and weight, Lee set it down and planted himself, ready to kick it with all his power. Gazing at the rock intensely, all his focus on it, Lee wound up his leg, cocking it back as far as it could go, and sent his leg flying, the top of his foot crashing into the rock, sending it flying away, all across the field. Lee was surprised! He hadn't expected that, he didn't know the length of the field but he knew that this kick had sent the rock flying farther than he had managed before. Lee started walking towards where the rock had landed, placing each foot right in front of the other (this was how Lee had measured his previous records). By the time that Lee had reached the rock he was pleased to find that it was 60ft away (these are not real feet, these are small children feet). That was practically, Lee did some math in his head, three times as far!

'Okay, well this definitely means I'm stronger, so there is something else going on here.' Lee, once again, crouched down and started thinking, his large eyebrows waggling in a very disturbing way as he thought things over. 'I'm stronger, the rock is the same weight, but it isn't really going any farther.' Lee clutched his head in his hands, 'This doesn't make any sense! What is going on? Okay, okay. What else do I know about hitting things? 1. The stronger you are the farther the thing you hit goes (but was that true, recent events seemed to disagree...) 2. It seems to help if I wind up more, not sure why though 3. It hurts when you hit things hard, the harder I hit the more it hurts...' Lee struggled with this last one point, it seemed important... 'OH! Wait, the time that it hurt the most was when I kicked it with my toe, but it didn't seem to go that far. Hmmm.' Lee sat upon the ground, staring at his right foot. Finally, he decided to just take a look at his actual foot, rather than just the bandages wrapped around in an estimation of a sandal (the sandals sold to orphans tended to just fall away, while still being pricey, so Lee had decided to stop buying them, bandages were way cheaper). Peering down at his foot, Lee looked it over, noting the rough surface of the top of his foot and the slightly crooked middle toe that had been broken some weeks earlier. Then he looked at the bottom of his foot, cutely twisting this way and that to get a better look. He pulled his foot to his eye level, looking at the bottom of it, rough and tough from his constant walking and kicking with nothing in between. The roughest part seemed to be just below where his toes started from his foot, and pushing upon that spot he could tell that a bone seemed reside there. Looking at the heel of his foot, Lee discovered the same thing, it was very rough and strong there too, with a bone somewhere underneath. Lee then pushed on his toes; they were soft and wiggly and after a little bit he started to laugh, nearly forgetting what he was doing as his toes wriggled and he played with them. Then, accidentally forgetting about his broken toe, he grabbed that one, causing a small spasm of pain. 'Right, right, trying to figure out how to kick harder!' He punched himself in the head a little, gotta get back on track. Lee then pushed against the top of his foot, which, while rough, didn't seem to have the same amount of toughness to it.

'Hmmm, okay, so the top of my foot works pretty well, but it doesn't seem as tough. Maybe I should try a different spot? If it hurt less than maybe I could kick harder, which would make it hurt more? But then if it hurt more it would go farther! That makes sense, yosh! Lee promptly wrapped up his foot, jumped up, and walked up to Alexander. Aiming carefully, he swung his leg back and geared up for a major kick. "This time you are going to fly, Alexander!" He shouted, and then let loose with his kick, but this time he aimed with his heel, trying to hit with the tough part of his foot, trying to kick harder than he ever had before. However, Lee wasn't particularly gifted at acrobatics or physical exertion and ended up totally whiffing, his leg overextending, causing him to flip and land directly on his back, the dust getting blown up further pushed away by the explosive breath that left his body. He choked on nothing for a bit, tears coming to his eyes as he gasped for non-existent breath. Eyes red and standing a bit wobbly, Lee rose to his feet, glaring at Alexander, "Low blow, Alexander, low blow." Lee murmured, setting himself up for another kick. "This time for sure I'll hit you and send you flying, just you watch!" Lee threw another reckless kick, again aiming with his heel but this time with his left foot, and again he had similarly disastrous results. But again and again, Lee picked himself up, dusted himself off, and kicked, again and again.

By the time the sun had started to set Lee was getting closer and closer. His heel had started to brush the rock, destroying his wraps and, then, after that, destroying his foot in the process. His heel had started to bleed, but Lee still rose, still wound up and kicked, alternating legs to give his sore and bloody heels a bit of rest. Finally with the sun almost set, the air beginning to take on a bit of chill, Lee wound up with his left leg, right leg planted a bit closer than normal to the rock. Lee imagined Alexander cheering him on, his little rock face stuck in a cheery grin, and Lee let it rip. Over the hours of practice he had figured out that the kick he was performing needed more forward motion and less of a rising angle, like the one he had used to get the top of his foot under Alexander. Lee concentrated, his foot coming in from a more direct angle, as he pushed everything he had in it. His leg seemed to be on track, and as Lee extended his knee, he started to grin, and he kept on grinning when his heel finally made solid and perfect contact with the rock, only to drive it a bit into the hard ground and for the reverberation and force of the vicious attack to travel back up Lee's leg. He howled, alternating between holding his leg and crying, hoping about and shaking his fist in anger, and looking at Alexander with puppy eyes, asking, "Why, Alexander, why!" What he didn't notice was the fact that the rock had been driven a fair distance into the hard, tightly packed dirt. Finally, upset with the results and upset at Alexander, Lee walked away, muttering that he would be back to try the ball of his foot tomorrow, "And you can just stay there and think about what you've done, Alexander!" Lee yelled, stomping off, only to clutch his foot at the impact and hop off into the sunset.

The next day Lee awoke to the sun, he had, unusually, woken at mid-morning. Usually the brightness of the sun and Lee's lack of hardy shelter meant that he was up shortly after dawn. But it seemed that the previous day's activities had left his body drained. Looking down at his feet, Lee saw that his bloody heels had dried to the raggedy blanket that he had found some months ago. Once you got to a certain age the Orphanage stopped giving hand outs, being already hard pressed to even care for all the newborns, especially in the wake of Kyuubi's attack, the remaining resources were far too few to be given out to those age four and above. Lee, unlike some, had managed to survive alone, making his own makeshift bed out of materials that he had scrounged up. He was also feisty and strong enough to protect his precious possessions. Although he knew that if any of the gangs of older orphans wanted to, they could remove everything he had, even his life. That happened sometimes, but it was very rare, even the unobservant and uncaring adults with their happy families would take notice of a dead child in an alley.

Lee whimpered a bit, peeling the old blanket off of his heels which had stuck to the dried blood, and stood up. He had another style of kicking to try today, the balls of his feet were unhurt, and he, in a child's way, was confident in his optimism. Plus, he was excited to see the familiar face of Alexander again. While Lee was aware of the fact that Alexander was just a rock, although a handsome and charming one, he still found himself missing it. There weren't a lot of friends around to find, and Lee would rather have an imaginary friend then go crazy from loneliness. Lee waggled his eyebrows at that last though, something seemed... off about it. Shrugging, Lee ignored his contradictory and problematic statement, instead focusing on his most excellent kicking schedule and the dream of sending Alexander flying (Lee had, near the beginning of this arduous task, determined that every rock wanted to fly, so kicking them repeatedly was just fine). Lee was so caught up in his thoughts that he never noticed the small group of kids moving towards him. He was worried about the effect of the, relatively, cold nights on Alexander and whether or not rocks preferred the warmth or cold when suddenly he became aware of the five children that had nearly surrounded him.

"Look, its the rock lover!"

"Hey rock lover, where are your parents?"

"They probably died from eating rocks!"

"Heheheh, yeah, talk about _hard-headed_."

Lee looked up abruptly, recognizing the girl slightly to his right, nestled by the largest of the group, a slightly chubby but tall 7 year old. Lee's eyes blazed with an inner fire that no one noticed as he stood straight as a pole, left hand in a fist at his hip, and his right arm pointing straight ahead, finger extended directly at the girl, "Just you wait, I'll kick that boulder to the moon, and then I'll be a Ninja!" The girl stood stock still for a second, the others around her slowly starting to laugh. The girl shook herself, then smiled hugely, her eyes glinting harshly. Laughing softly she challenged, "You'll never be a Ninja, rock lover, plus" she grinned wickedly at this point, "they changed the requirements; now you have to be able to punch that big boulder apart as well!" The kids around her guffawed even louder at that, but Lee just figured they were laughing at his inability, rather than the fact that this was all a lie. Lee, somehow (ignoring physics), stood up even straighter, extended his arm even more, and yelled as loudly as he could, "NOTHING WILL STOP ME! YOSH! I WILL BE A NINJA!" The kids around him laughed even more, not believing that a four year old, especially an orphan, would still believe what they had told him weeks past.

They had seen him idly kicking around a small pebble, talking to no one as he did so, when a Ninja had quickly burst into view, checked the surroundings, and then continued on, disappearing as suddenly as they had appeared. Lee had been in shock, as well as the other kids, but they had noticed the longing in his eyes, and they wanted to be Ninja as well, all the kids did. But he was different, he didn't go to school with them, or have parents, or nice clothes, or well kept hair, or clean fingers and toes, or shoes, or any of a hundred other things. Different was something that they feared, their parents had been infected with the fear of the Kyuubi, of those who had power, those who were separated, and fear, unlike most diseases or viruses, could be spread effortlessly, across large swathes of people, and the children had a bad case of it. So they had advanced as one, their own fear controlling them from the deep recesses of their minds, in tune with their parents, and they had descended upon the boy, who was _different_.

They had regaled him with stories of Ninja, about how amazing they were, how they were loved and respected. How any kid worth their salt became one, and the ones who didn't were sent away from the village to be eaten by demons in the forest as sacrifices, and then, taking their inspiration from the small pebble that the boy had been kicking, had told him that every child that wanted to be a Ninja had to kick the large boulder in Training Ground #22 50ft. They had all bragged that they had already done it, that they had to do it on bigger rocks, but that the Ninja liked orphans (only if they succeeded though; they hated failures), so orphans just had to kick this smaller rock the required distance.

Lee had eaten it up, his face glowing with excitement as they told their tale, convinced that he could finally achieve his dream, to end the weird and unending pain that kept him up at night. He had been hoping from foot to foot as they finished up, pumping his fists before running off towards the training ground, to try immediately to do what the older kids had all done already. The kids, had barely believed that their tall tale had worked, and had erupted in laughter at the stupidity of the orphan.

That was about three weeks ago, and now, here was the stupid orphan again, telling them that he was actually going to kick that boulder just like they told him too. This was the first time that anything any of them had been taken so seriously, and the flush of power through their young minds kept them from really noticing or taking seriously the bloody bandages that doubled as shoes for the young orphan, the malnutrition that paled and cut his face, or the feverishly burning eyes that needed this. Instead, with the egging of the Blonde Girl, they had supported the new rule. That a Ninja now needed to kick the boulder the 50ft and then break it apart with their fists. One or two of the more creative ones quickly scuffed their own fists, and then turning back to the orphan, showed their "wounds" saying that they had just destroyed their own boulders, seemingly put out by the mundane nature of the task. The kids, sans Lee, started laughing again.

Meanwhile, Lee, still in his pose, was becoming desperate in his own mind. 'Break it apart with my fists? Is that even possible', he thought. He saw the evidence of the other kids' work, their fists just a little scuffed, and then Lee thought about his own feet, torn and bloody, without even dealing with a boulder his own size, let alone the one that was three times his size! 'What can I do? Can I do this? I want to be a Ninja. I want it, I want it, I want it!' And then something broke or maybe steeled in Lee. He was either on his last legs or standing up for everything he had fought for throughout his life, he was either trapped or choosing his path, but regardless, the result was the same, 'No, no, no, no, I need this. I will get this. I won't hurt. I'll be a Ninja. I'll do whatever it takes. If I don't its all over!' And so Lee kept grinning, stuck in his pose, and nodded vigorously. He covered his anxiety, his worry, and his fear with one great last pose, his hair blowing in the sudden wind before taking off, running towards the boulder that he HAD to destroy or be destroyed himself, ignoring the way that the hard ground dug into his wounded heels, the way that his breath caught in his lungs, and the haunting fear of the looming task ahead of him. He didn't want the Ninja to think he was a failure.

Behind him, one of the kids that had been teasing and who hadn't started laughing again due to the strange orphan's resolution, stood and watched him run towards Training Ground #22, her brown hair all done up in buns wavering slightly in the breeze that had accompanied the orphan's hasty exit. She had finally noticed the bloody bandages when he had sprinted off, and she hadn't been able to laugh afterwards. As the Blond Girl yelled, "Yeah, good luck with that Rock Lee!" she and the other kids gleeful over the new nickname, the girl with the brown buns turned and started to walk away as her stomach sunk to her feet in their nice shoes, unbroken from kicking rocks.

Lee was working a word around in his mouth, "Rock Lee" he mumbled, as he walked around Training Ground #22. He liked it. It was simple, but it was strong, and looking over at Alexander, he could tell his friend approved. There was something appropriate about the nickname, and while he vaguely knew that the what the Blond Girl had yelled was supposed to be insulting, but that didn't change the fact that the name seemed to suit him. He knew that those kids didn't like him, why was a mystery, but for the most part their taunts and insults didn't penetrate his kick-centric exterior. The stuff about his parents got through though. He was simultaneously enraged and happy about the comment about his parents eating rocks/being hard headed. He liked rocks too! And it would be awesome to share such a connection with them. He had often wondered about who they were, and had finally decided that they might have been rocks, like Alexander, plus that meant they weren't dead. Rocks never died. And he could forgive them not being there, it was hard for a rock to move! Lee smiled sadly at that thought, wondering if maybe they wished their human son would find them, and then Lee thought they might be angry at him for not finding them sooner. He knew that sometimes parents yelled at their kids for not going home. But he wanted to be home! They would understand right? They had to! "They understand, right? I mean, they'd have to, right Alexander?" Lee gazed at his friend, expecting an answer, but only getting the vague and unmoving smile that he had designated Alexander's face. Lee smiled, taking the silence as an affirmative. That settled, Lee, no, Rock Lee, geared up to take a kick at Alexander, using his brand new style of kick, Ball Kick!

Much like the previous day, Rock Lee mostly exhausted himself for the first few hours simply missing, having to now correct his accurate, but useless, heel tendencies for kicking. His clothes were becoming heavy with dust, and the small amount of food he had taken with him to the training ground was quickly consumed by the semi-ravenous child. He never got much food at all, and all of this training seemed to have the serious by product of rapidly increasing his hunger. However, Rock Lee struggled on, paying his attention no mind, instead focusing everything on his right foot, specifically the ball of the foot. Winding up again, Rock Lee unleashed his sure-fire kick, only to scrap some of the skin off of the ball of his foot, barely pushing Alexander, grin still present, over. The boy alternated between grabbing his foot while yelping and grinning and shouting because of his small victory. Several hours later, found Rock Lee huffing and puffing, both of his feet bloody at the heel and ball of the foot, with Rock Lee vainly attempting to rest his weight on his toes and nothing else. Once again glaring at Alexander, he sat down, content to gather his strength for another grueling session of sending Alexander skyward. Checking his feet, Rock Lee thought about the cool things that Ninja did, from doing missions (presumably to a place to do something) to wearing cool looking clothes (he thought he would look good in anything that wasn't falling apart) to moving about the village with impunity (the vendors probably gave them free food!). Rock Lee once turned his gaze to the boulder, and then to his hands, he needed to start on the punches soon. The boulder looked pretty hard, besides being heavy (he had started his training by simply trying to kick the large boulder, but had quickly found it to be quite impervious to any of his efforts). Rock Lee shook his head, no use worrying about it when there was kicking to be done! He stood up, his feet protesting by leaking a fair amount of blood, and staggered/walked over to Alexander. Staring off into the distance, trying to gather his concentration, his eyes suddenly caught something moving in the distance, 'a shadow' he thought? But there it was again, appearing in the forest, then disappearing, then appearing once again, and it was moving closer! It was zig-zagging across the forest, making no sound. He tried to follow it, to catch the shadow with his eyes, but he only saw the edges of it, even as it drew closer and closer. It was teleporting all around, and then suddenly it stopped, almost 100ft in the forest, it was a Ninja, a girl Ninja! She was somehow holding herself to the side of a tree, her pupils wildly scanning the area before locking to her right, and then she was in motion, heading for the middle of the clearing where Rock Lee stood, gaping dumbly while Alexander just smiled at him.

'Must have taken soldier pills. Too many. He would die, but he could catch her. Mission could be compromised. Mission would _not_ be compromised. Run for now, use terrain/knowledge to advantage.' Ri's quick rest turned into a burst of action as she headed for the clearing, 'clearing, open space, allow for those who needed to to see her. That many soldier pills, interfere with ability to plan, space to move, space to plan, space to outwit/trap/kill. Ri felt him behind her, his chakra a roiling mass of chaos and strength. 'He can overpower me, negate power, make own advantage, win, kill, accomplish mission.' As she launched herself into the clearing she put down a line of explosive notes, using a quick genjutsu to barely cover them, probably all she needed for his enraged and overstimulated state. She spun herself in mid air, sending a flurry of kunai into the woods behind her, leaving a space in the open for him to dodge, straight into the explosive notes. 'Herd a wild animal, control it, defang it, kill it.' Her training was a quiet voice in her head, not wasting words or energy. As she spun, she caught a glimpse of a boy, gaping at where she had rapidly existed from the forest, his head only beginning to turn in her direction. 'Ninja? Training Ground #22. Off limits. Danger? No, civilian, ignorant. Protect? Mission parameters: Civilian targets allowed, protection of information/delivery of information paramount, everything else secondary. Ignore civilian, REACT!'

Suddenly her pursuer broke through the woods, barely dodging the kunai, going through the small gap in the middle, his chakra overloaded mind sending him straight into the explosive notes that promptly denoted, wrenching a smile from the Ri's normally impassive face. She turned to the boy, appearing directly beside him, ready to knock him unconscious, this was a stealth mission afterall, and the less details he had about her the less likely his story would be believed. Root would not look kindly upon having one of their operatives marked, even if it was by a small child with bloody feet. Then, suddenly, a roar, 'Alive, threat, alive?' Her pursuer broke through the explosion, his throat exuding pure chakra, chakra that was holding parts of him in place, his flesh torn and seared from taking the explosions head on. His eyes, not really seeing, zeroed in on her, charging at her at a pace that was simply ridiculous, nevermind him missing parts of his left thigh and right calf. Ri was momentarily shocked, but training took over, 'Civilian targets allowed. Mission must be completed.' And with that her shocked mind allowed the Root training to take hold, as she switched from turning to her attacker to spinning into a kick that sent the small boy to her side flying at the enraged Ninja, 'Enraged opponent, all is threat, will respond, follow up, kill in depleted state. Mission Accomplished.' Ri was horrified for a split second, sending the small boy to his death was unnecessary, even if it did clinch victory for her to nearly 100%, but not one to waste an opportunity, even such an unwilling and inhumane one, she followed behind the small boy, using his tiny frame to keep her out of line of sight from the man who was risking chakra combustion to stop her mission. Saying a small prayer in her mind, Ri lined up the killing shot that would make the boy's unwilling sacrifice worth it.

Rock Lee was in shock. She moved so fast, and there was something so beautiful about it, her compact motions, the graceful form and speed that he could barely follow, even with it happening right in front of him. He saw her whip something to the ground, missed the hand signals, saw nothing, and then suddenly there was a roar, as some sharp knives flew unerringly towards where the roar came from. His head jerked in that direction, seeing the large man rip his way from the forest, a strange purple aura around him seemed to seethe and rage as the man, another Ninja (!), dodged the knives, only to step straight into the explosion that knocked the breath from Rock Lee, although it kept him standing. He turned to look at the beautiful Ninja that had orchestrated such destruction only to find her right by him, spinning into such a fluid kick that he only barely registered that there was nothing to kick but him, and then, as her kick crashed into his body, his eyes met her, his head still turning to look over at her, and there was a flash of something in her eyes, cold steel replaced with... regret? Only to be replaced with cold steel once again, and then he was flying, his head jerking back once again to see ruins of a man emerge from the explosion. Nothing had frightened Rock Lee so much, as he flew, straight as an arrow, towards the hulking man, the aura around him seeming to hold his frame together, against all logic and rules. Rock Lee stared into the man's face, his eyes widening as the man, his face as cold and hard as rock, grabbed his own knife and prepared to skewer the threat, albeit small threat, heading towards him at a very quick speed. And Rock Lee, seeing the impassive face, that had no emotion or caring, was reminded of a rock, and Rock Lee, acting out of instinct, terror, and the recent memory of Alexander grinning at him, did what he had been doing to rocks for several weeks, he kicked it.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Hey guys and gals, I hope you are all enjoying this. Sorry for the awfully late update. I'm going to try and get chapters out a lot faster than this, and if you ever get tired of waiting feel free to PM me and hassle me. That'll help a lot... probably.

A couple of things about this story. One: I've always thought for an elite who is undoubtedly paranoid, Danzo never took enough precautions, so expect his organization to be stupid secure, and for him to be stupid paranoid, and everything he does to be stupid complicated.

In addition, I've never bought the fact that Root could operate without semi-normal people. It would be really easy to identify members of Root otherwise, just ask them about their mother or father (don't have them, they act sad, if they do, they act happy/warm/angry), and if they don't have an emotional reaction or don't understand they are in Root! Easy peasy. So there will be people like Rin, whose training turns on and off depending on certain parameters.

This is not going to be fully canon, still not sure to what extent though. Also, this story is about Lee and the people around him. Gai will definitely be in it, but Naruto will mostly just be off doing stuff. They might interact, and they might even fight, but this story is, first and foremost, about Lee and pain and all of that. This is also going to be a very mature story, with all sorts of fucked up fuckery. I'll try to give warnings and everything (same if there is any sex scenes), so you can skip if possible, but anything like that will be important and will impact the story, so you might want to at least try and read it.

Thanks for the few reviews I've already gotten, and I hope I elicit more, even if all you have to say is "Suck on this, faggot". I treasure every review. Thanks.

Chapter 2: Where Kicking Gets You

'Mission accomplished. No pursuers, *click*' And with that Ri's Root training switched off, letting her stop her intense inspection of the ninja's chest, had to make sure he wasn't breathing, who had almost caught her. He was an absolute mess, the chakra that had been holding his body together had been snuffed out when she had driven her kunai into his throat, nearly severing his head from the force of her attack. She hadn't wanted any other surprises, surprises killed ninjas, and she had already been surprised twice today.

The effects of her attack and the explosion had almost turned the man into mincemeat, and she was glad that this had been the first time that someone she was fighting had decided to overload on Soldier Pills. The damage he had incurred and overcome had been terrifying, reminding her of lectures from Danzo-sama about what it was like when high level ninja fought, those at and beyond Jounin skill.

It wasn't something that she wanted to encounter again. As her thoughts went over the battle, replaying it in her mind so that she could learn and dissect the strategies involved, her hands finished checking the pockets and body of the man and started to clean her bloody kunai. 'A clean weapon is a sharp weapon' Her training said with the feeling of a smile. The man had nothing of importance on him, which made sense, this clearly wasn't the type of mission you walk away from.

Ri kept staring at the dead ninja's body, not wanting to glance to her left where she knew the dead and broken body of the child she had used lay. She didn't really feel bad per say, most of her emotions had been beaten/coerced/tortured/wiped from her over the course of years. Of course, the obvious by product of that being that those heinous actions taken by her superiors to disabuse her of emotions no longer bothered her, it was a nice little vicious circle now that she thought of it.

But regardless, it still didn't sit pleasantly with her, the idea that she had sacrificed the small child for her own escape. Danzo-sama always lectured the Root forces on the importance of protecting Konoha; that was their job. And killing kids who just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time seemed like a bad way of going about that. Still, Root members did not balk at anything.

Rock Lee was barely conscious, and he knew that his body was screaming at him to lay down, to stop, to go to sleep. But he needed to know what had happened. He had seen the juggernaut of a man, seen the knife that he was wielding coming straight for his chest, but he had kicked! He had hit the man's wrist, coming from below, with the ball of his foot, not that had really stopped the man, instead it had just put his fist off center. And then the most intense pain he had ever experienced had hit him, tearing through his left shoulder like a tsunami, or an earthquake, or something else that was unstoppable. He had blacked out then, only to awaken moments? Minutes? Hours? later to the sky.

His shoulder pulsed with the beat of his heart and his left arm and right leg, the one he had kicked with, both felt warm, but everything else was cold. He was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to be that cold. Well, nothing he could do about it right now, it seemed like he couldn't even lift his arms, although he did manage to get his right arm and hand to twitch a bit, and he could have sworn his left foot's toes wiggled. So that was good, he guessed.

He was slowly getting control over his body again, and with some consternation, noticed that he had been crying. Lee very rarely cried, but lifting his head a little and getting a good look at his left shoulder, he figured that if that gory wound and mound of flesh that made up his shoulder hadn't managed to kill him he could allow himself to cry, maybe for a couple of hours. He closed his eyes. He had heard of people getting really badly hurt before, in fact, he had seen some of his fellow orphans, as well as others who had gotten their asses kicked, whether from other kids or just from the world itself, and he had seen how terrified they were. He wasn't though, he was just kinda floating along, slightly making note of his body, his condition, and the very nice breeze that seemed to be blowing through the field.

After a while, Lee stopped just floating in his head, having realized that he wasn't going to just die, nor was he going to go to sleep as the pounding in his shoulder was just getting worse. So, instead, he decided to get a look at his right leg, he still couldn't feel it, not like his left leg at least. Opening his eyes and lifting his head a little he took a good, long look at his right leg only to regret it. There was bone jutting out, and it was a mess. It didn't really look like his leg. He figured he should be having a greater reaction to this than just, 'Gee, that doesn't look like MY leg.' But that was what he thought, so he just rolled with it, although he was a bit disturbed that it would be a lot harder to kick anything for a while.

Looking up once again, Rock Lee managed to get his head almost vertical, only to have his breath caught in his throat, there she was. The girl Ninja who had been so graceful! She was staring down at the man he had kicked, and he seemed to be dead. 'I must have kicked him harder than I thought.'

Lee let his eyes travel up from the man laying on the ground to the girl in front of him. She was wearing the common black sandals that he had seen on so many other Ninja, but instead of the regular black pants of the ones he had seen jumping from roof to roof she had camouflage patterned pants. They were tied down with black bandages, keeping the baggy material closer to her legs, even with all the pockets. And man, did she have pockets, they were all over the pants of all sizes and shapes, but with no bulge to indicate that there was anything in them. She also had a belt holding it all up, very thick, almost like some sort of armor. It was also black and had, instead of a belt, a thickly coiled rope going through the loops, it looked like it had been looped around several times, and it was impossible to tell how much rope she on her.

Tucked into the belt was an olive green shirt that matched the camouflage on the pants, with a heavy jacket thrown over it, unzipped and black. The jacket also had a plethora of pockets. It seemed to be a combat jacket, looking stiff and tough, with it being a little short, so that even just standing there you could see her hips and the t-shirt underneath it.

The most startling aspect about her though, besides the never ending pockets, was her head, specifically her eyes and hair. She had a fairly long face, not beautiful, but with a kind of rugged prettiness, like a pageant contestant who rather fight for the tiara rather than pose. Her hair however, seemed to be clearly on the rugged side, no beauty there. It was spiky and messy and utterly out of control, even with her sweat pulling it down it stuck out every which way, and it was a black, no wait, Lee saw it was actually a deep, dark blue, the sunlight glinting off of parts of it revealing the blue tinge to it. And then Lee saw her eyes, they were a bright green, hard but containing life, if a very tough and rugged kind of life.

'Oh right. Isn't she the one that kicked me?' Lee mused, his eyes still stuck on her. He remember how he had been turning to look at her, his first real close up view of a Ninja in action, but then she had been right by him, her leg already outstretched, and her eyes, they had flashed with regret. He was almost sure of it. Regret for what though? For kicking him? Well, he had survived, or at least he had sort of survived. And he didn't have any plans to die; he wasn't even a Ninja yet!

Well if he wasn't going to die, then he probably needed to stop the wounds, the hurting, his head was getting fuzzy again. Before he could black out again, Lee wheezed out a couple of words, "Hey, -" but before he could get any farther, the girl had suddenly appeared near him. Instead of finishing his previous sentence all Lee could do was inhale sharply and whisper, "Pretty."

Rin was staring down at what could be called a child, if you wanted to use the term loosely. The poor kid was just a fuckin' mess, but that wasn't what made her eyes widen. It was the single word that she caught from, surprisingly, his still breathing throat. "Pretty" that single word shocked her nearly as much as the man who, just a few moments ago, had nearly torn her in half.

In an instant, Rin was kneeling down, her Root medic training taking over on pure instinct as her mind still reeled a bit from the tenacity of the boy as well as the innocent compliment. Root members weren't complimented on their physical appearance, unless you included some of their trainers obsessions with them having the most athletic bodies possible.

As Rin struggled a bit with the idea that this boy was alive and thought her pretty (wasn't she covered in- she had kicked him!), she was also making a rigorous appraisal of the wounds the boy had suffered. So diverted was her attention, that she never noticed the presence of her master suddenly appearing. It wasn't until the enigmatic old man quietly said her name that she leapt to her feet and saluted.

Danzo did not often come out to meet his agents in the middle of a field. He rarely showed his face in any place where a connection between him and the many emotionless Root members could be made. But this mission was of particular importance, Rin was late, Danzo was known for walking along this path, and this wasn't Danzo. Instead it was a Kage Bunshin (a clone that wasn't as strong but a perfect copy of a person) that was Henged (a jutsu that made you appear to look like someone else) into Danzo.

Regular ninja would just see Danzo talking to someone along his normal path. Those who were much more cautious and probably more powerful, would see someone who was Henged into Danzo. Powerful ninja or even very cautious ones would never be fooled by a Henge, but that didn't mean that they would know who was under it. That was the true power, not to deceive on the surface, but underneath that. And who would imagine that he was Henged as himself? That took a special amount of paranoia and planning that Danzo had cultivated through years of combat in the shadows.

"Rin." Danzo quietly announced his presence to the veteran Root Member. Immediately she saluted, and then followed up with a series of complicated hand signs, which were not only furiously fast but also had the very odd effect of producing a spicy scent, somehow.

Another precaution against those who might try to infiltrate their organization. It was conceivable that somehow someone could copy the seals, through the use of a Sharingan, Genjutsu, or some other specialized method. But to also catch the scent would be difficult, and Danzo's response was even more complicated. You could tell a lot about the security clearance of someone in Danzo's organization by just how many human sense's were involved when greeting a fellow Root Member.

Getting the correct response back from Danzo-sama, Rin immediately launched into her report. "Mission was a success. Delay was due to being pursued, due to tripping of alarm, due to information not being accurate. All pursuers are dead. One made his way past the Village's walls." With that being said, Rin handed the scroll that she unsealed, in a small puff of smoke, from another seal.

Danzo nodded his head, taking the seal and pocketing it away somewhere before turning his attention away from the dead man in the clearing and focusing upon the heavily wounded boy near Rin's feet. "And who is that?"

Mission parameters being satisfied, Rin was able to give a much more thorough explanation regarding the boy, his involvement, and her best guess as to why he was there in the first place. "I had thought he was dead, but when I came over to make sure, he suddenly looked at me and said that I was... pretty."

Danzo made note of the slight hesitation in Rin's voice, his eyes now boring into the skull of the dying child. Apparently the boy had succumbed to unconsciousness after uttering his compliment. "He is a citizen of Konoha. Letting him die will only bring more attention to this area. Take him back to the base for him to receive medical attention."

Rin immediately went about her task, body and heart happy to comply with the order from her master. Cradling the boy in her arms, she leapt away to find a secure entrance to one of the many Root Bases scattered throughout the Village.

Behind her, Danzo made a small motion with one of his hands and another Root Member appeared. "Unleash the jutsu you use the most in this area." The Root Member complied. "Absorb any foreign chakra here." The Root Member complied. "Use two of them upon the dead man, over there." The Root Member complied. "Stand still."

Danzo quickly summoned enough chakra to make one of his fingers glow from the concentrated energy and started to slash the Root Member who simply stood there. Next he ripped parts of the Root Member's clothing before finally slashing him a couple of times with a kunai. "Stay here and wait for ANBU to come. Answer all of their questions. You killed this man when he suddenly came upon you training. You suffered from his attacks. There was no child here. Rin was never here. I was never here." The Root Member complied.

Danzo turned to leave, only to pause for a second and then turn around. "You must show emotions" he said to the Root Member. The agent simply stood silently, not understanding. Danzo sighed, this was the problem with his training, while it created nearly perfect tools it also stripped the people of their humanity. Tools didn't need humanity.

Danzo walked up to the silently standing agent, "You shall act as if you are in pain." The Root Member did nothing, "as if you are a normal ninja" Danzo added on. The Root Member smiled, poorly. "No." The smile disappeared. "That is a smile, you need to look as if you are in pain. Grimace." The Root Member let out a hallow and chilling laugh, then noticing the ire in Danzo-sama's eye pouted, while shaking, and sticking his tongue out.

It seemed that the agent was simply cycling through facial expressions, hoping to get it right. "Stop." The Root Member went back to his normal, blank expression. Danzo stepped closer, and then put his hands on the agent's face. Pulling up on his lips, Danzo corrected, "This is a smile." Pulling the lips down to a straight line, "This is neutral." Pulling the lips down, "This is a frown." Use the frown to denote pain, the neutral is for all other times, except when your wounds are finished treating, then go with the smile. The agent nodded.

"Good, now demonstrate please. I have just appeared and begin to ask you what is going on." The man smiled widely, his lips shaking as the muscles strained to adopt the biggest smile that the agent's face could make. "No. You need to turn that smile upside down." The agent frowned furiously, the deep creases in his face denoting either extreme discomfort, furious outrage, or insanity.

"Close enough. Report back once all suspicion has been cleared." And with that Danzo disappeared suddenly, leaving the Root Member to frown in a horrifying manner in the destroyed field.

Rin was a flurry of movement. She didn't think she had ever moved this fast before, even when she had been chased by that man. Turns out, for her at least, guilt was a greater motivator than self-preservation. Really she shouldn't have been that surprised. Her training had gotten rid of a lot of normal human traits.

She looked down at the bleeding mass of flesh and rags that resembled a small boy. She was still stunned that he was alive, and that he had stayed conscious. That was no small feat of concentration, especially considering how much pain he must have been in.

And upon her inspection of him, which had been interrupted by Danzo-sama, she had noticed that he had a lot of bruises and cuts from something else. He had been dirty, seemed malnourished, and he didn't smell very good either. The boy had obviously not had the most protected of lives.

Rin looked up, heading towards not the nearest Root base, but the second nearest. Root Members were never allowed to go to the nearest base unless in the most desperate of times. Have enough members, incidents, and ninja around and those who specialized in tracking could start to figure things out by simple triangulation or by interviewing witnesses until they could figure out the area in which the person they were tracking disappeared.

Normally Rin would be heading to a base that was much farther away. She wasn't injured, and she had completed her mission successfully, that meant she could take her time and find a base that was very far away. So that if someone was trying to track her she would have time to figure it out, and if they did interview witnesses it would appear to be a random pattern of where people were going.

Instead Rin felt that it was worth some chewing out to use a nearer base. She wasn't about to let her training and mistakes earlier cost this poor boy his life. It was her job, and the rest of Root, to protect the citizens of Konoha, not get them killed. It was loopholes like that that let her bend the rules governing base access.

Looking down again, Rin was, once again, shocked to see the boy opening his eyes. They weren't focused on anything at first, simply roaming about in his sockets, but then his whole body tensed, and Rin realized that he was now feeling the excruiating pain that he must be in. She tried to make some kind of comforting sounds, but panicked, so she fell back on training, starting to calmly list all of his injuries that she had noted. It didn't seem to help much.

Lee was moving, moving quickly. As he opened his eyes he could barely make out a face, green eyes, and the blur of the sky. He started to smile, thinking that it might be the pretty lady who was above him, but then his skin started to crawl, and then it started to burn, and then he was trying to scream but he couldn't.

Breathing hurt so much, everything hurt so much, and he would have thought that the pain he was in couldn't get worse, but every time they landed his leg and arm and ribs and head jolted a bit, and the spike of agony that was drilled through those parts of his body was simply unbelievable.

He thought he heard something coming from the lady Ninja's mouth, but he couldn't be sure. He tried to focus on it, looking at first at her mouth, to see if he could lip read what she was saying. But then he noticed that he was crying again, the tears streaking down his cheeks.

Rin didn't know what to do. This gravely injured boy seemed to be feeling everything now, his shock must have worn off and without the pain being numbed by a brain overwhelmed he was hurting so much that Rin's own body was recoiling from the torture written out on the boy's face.

Her listing of his injuries didn't seem to be helping him at all. And while she was trying to land softly now, noticing the sharp intake of breath and tensing of the boy's muscle whenever she landed, it was much more important to get him to a doctor than to slow down so he wouldn't be as hurt.

Rin, against her will, was taken back to her own training. She, like everyone who didn't break, had only barely made it through. There was no passing with flying colors through that. You crawled out of it or you didn't. She shuddered a bit, remembering, only to cringe as she realized the movement had elicited a heart wrenching groan from her ward.

Rin had almost not made it through, but near the end, when she was already more or less numb and the end was in sight, one of the trainers had given them a piece of advice, "The pain you are going through, the pain you went through. It is necessary. It gives you strength, it tempers you, it makes you into what is needed." That, for some reason, had helped her. Maybe it would help this poor boy.

"Uh, I know you are in a lot of pain right now, but it will get better! And, uh, I mean, this is probably the worst thing you'll ever experience... probably. So there is that. Also, maybe after dealing with this other things won't seem so bad, yeah. Who knows, maybe this will make you stronger?"

Rin wasn't really very eloquent with her words. Most of her communication was terse sentences, filled with facts, not comfort. On top of that, she wasn't really in a stable state of mind to be talking to a barely conscious kid. She was far too focused on getting to the 2nd nearest base for some very needed medical attention for said kid.

Lee couldn't even believe what was happening to him. His mind was just an endless screaming mess that howled and howled. His nerves were dying, but that just seemed to make them want to live more, transmitting the pain in a near constant rate, with occasional spikes when jerked or moved.

His arm, which had at first just itched, had moved from uncomfortable, to painful, to a molten, liquid pain that clung to him like a scent. He wanted nothing more to hack off the offending limb with any sharp object available, even if it was his teeth. The same went for his leg.

Through it all he was vaguely aware of the fact that he was being carried. He was livid about that, the movement through the air was fanning the flames of his agony, the jarring stops and starts of landing and taking off making everything so much worse. He hated the person carrying him, he thought at once he might have known who it was, but it was all lost to the seething torrent of fire and bone and feeling that had coalesced around him.

Then he had heard some words, that were delivered by a cool voice. Almost seeming a balm to the wounds that had torn him asunder. He only caught a couple of words on the edge of his hearing, his ears, blissfully, mostly unaffected by his other injuries. He heard, "Pain... better... experience... after dealing... make... stronger."

Those words to him were a connection. He was in so much pain, and there didn't seem to be any escape, but those words were outside of that. And he clung to them like a man drowning. One word in particular became especially important to him, "after". That meant that this could end, and he wanted it to end, by any means necessary. Death seemed fairly welcoming, especially since up to this point his life hadn't been particularly amazing. His best friend was a Rock, for Kami's sake. Lee would have let out a snort if he had been even remotely close to a proper state of mind to appreciate the humor.

Regardless, the words had done a significant amount of help. His consciousness, while still screaming, was also finally aware of other things. It was the girl Ninja who held him right now. And she was looking down at him, with some sort of expression. His mind was running pretty much on autopilot, but he, at least, knew that this person wouldn't be causing him any more harm, and she probably had some sort of reason for dragging him through the hell of movement.

So Lee did what most children do when faced with a pain that they cannot understand nor stop. He grabbed onto a person he felt was safe, who had spoken words to him in a time when all he knew was a searing pain. He grabbed at her clothes, tried to bury his head deeper into her arms, and tried to use her a shield to the misery and torment as he was finally overcome by the pain.

Lee woke up in the dark, not feeling anything. At first it was a kind relief. At first he didn't understand why the darkness and numbness felt so good, but slowly, in a kind of snowball of traumatic experience, he began to remember his training, the girl, the man, the kick, and the pain.

Lee was almost knocked out again, and he began to cry once more, the tears, amazingly, no longer burning trails down his cheek. Instead, the wetness stopped at his jawline, where, apparently, there was some thick bandages.

Surprised by the bandage on his face, he quickly became aware of the bandages that seemed to wrap his entire body. His left arm and right leg were totally numb. Everything else seemed to be working, if tightly wrapped. He could barely even move. With these realizations, in particular the one where he was no longer in horrifying pain, Lee stopped crying and tried to look around.

Opening his eyes wide, Lee realized that he was pretty much in utter darkness. He seemed to be on some sort of bed, but that was about all her could tell. Concentrating on trying to feel what was around him and staring intently every which way he could, Lee was able to determine... nothing. It was very dark, and while he was very appreciative of the lack of pain, Lee was also hoping someone would turn on a light.

Before Lee could muse any more about his situation though, someone granted his request, and the room was suddenly bathed in a soft, muted light that still managed to seem like a solar flare to his now sensitive eyes. He blinked rapidly trying to make out who had entered the room and turned on the light.

A person was standing in what appeared to be a doorway, although Lee couldn't see a door. The man seemed to be wearing some kind of mask, but Lee's rapidly blinking eyes still couldn't see exactly what was up.

Suddenly the man was by his side, calmly and cooly removing something from his arm that elicited a small gasp from Lee. It felt like something from inside of his right arm had been detached and it was a particularly eerie feeling, although it didn't hurt much. Again, without really seeing the man move, Lee was being picked up, experiencing some powerful vertigo from being lifted up.

Lee was rapidly moved out of the room into a dreary hallway, the walls an uniform grey that stretched as far as Lee could see. He didn't see anymore doors, but he was having a hard time concentrating, and weirdly enough, even though he was being carried his wounds still didn't hurt. Lee was a bit surprised by that, but it didn't seem that important. Not much seemed very important right now.

Moving rapidly through the hallway, Lee soon lost all idea of where he was or how much time was passing. He felt a bit funny, but in a good way, and he became rather entranced by the passing lights in the ceiling. His head was cradled in the man's arms, and they never wavered or seemed to tire, although Lee couldn't say if they had been moving for hours or minutes.

Eventually, after some amount of time, Lee was carried into a room with a two chairs, each facing each other. Other than that, there didn't seem to be anything else, although the edges of the room were still clouded in darkness, as far as he could tell at least.

When the man placed Lee down on the chair Lee finally got a look at the man's mask, which seemed to be some kind of animal. Maybe a kitty or a doggy, Lee really had no idea, as his head lolled around a bit.

Lee sat in the chair for a while, not really sure how long he was there, but knowing for sure, that he should be there. After all, why else would the doggy or kitty man have brought him there? He did wonder where the pretty Ninja girl was. He needed to thank her for being so pretty. Lee was starting to think that his thoughts were a little extra strange today. Was it today?

Further musing about the current time and day were interrupted by a man sitting down in the chair opposite of Lee. He was dressed like the other guy, but his mask had some different markings, and Lee wasn't sure if it was an animal or not. Further musings of all the animals that Lee had ever seen and comparing it with the markings was interrupted by the man speaking.

"Lee, I am going to need you to focus on me and what I am saying. Can you do that?"

Lee nodded. "Can you speak, Lee?" Lee nodded. "Lee, could you please say something?"

"Something."

"Okay Lee. That's great. Could you please tell me about the two people you saw fighting the other day?"

"Um, they were fighting?"

"Right, yes they were fighting Lee. Good job. Do you remember anything else?"

"One of them was pretty, and the other was way... less pretty. Uh, the pretty girl Ninja kicked me, and then I kicked the man. It was like, like a chain of kicks? A kickchain, is that a thing? Are you an octopus?"

"Great, that was very descriptive Lee. And no, I am not an octopus. Could you please tell me about everything that you remember about the 'Pretty Girl Ninja'?"

"She was pretty. She kicks pretty hard. Her kick was pretty, pretty hard. Lot's of pretty. Ummmm, she carried me? She was really fast, and, and it hurt a lot. It hurt so much..." Lee's eyes started watering again, thinking about it.

"You don't hurt right now though, right Lee? You feel okay?"

"Yep! Yeah, yeah, I do! I feel weird and funny but good, like really good. Like pretty good." Lee giggled at using the word "pretty" again.

"Good. Do you remember anything else?"

Lee got a little quiet, "The man was scary. He hurt me, I think? I kicked him hard though. I kicked him so hard that he was sleeping. I kick really hard!" Lee smiled at that last part.

"Great, that's wonderful Lee." Our friend over there will see you back to your room. You just rest up for us, and we'll have you back to kicking things soon enough."

Lee simply nodded at that, the talk and travel having made him surprisingly sleepy. When the man picked him up again, Lee let his head rest against the man's bicep, imagining it was the Pretty Ninja Lady and falling asleep.

The man sitting in the chair took off his mask to reveal the left side of his face to be bandaged, his greying hair poking out of the bandages in an unruly manner. His clothes were ragged and torn, dirty in some places, but his fashion sense was overwhelmed by the danger he exuded. Tossing the mask to someone in the shadows, Danzo let his body stoop, discarding the bright and friendly presence he had worn moments before for his interview with Lee.

"We have a new addition to Root. Get him ready."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Rock Among Roots

Lee suffered for about 2 weeks before he had finally recovered from his extensive injuries. He could scarcely believe that was all the time it took, but the doctors who looked after him, besides the weird animal masks, were incredibly talented. They were able to not only use some of the more basic medicine, like bandages, splints, etc, but also seemed to have specific jutsu for healing his body.

That's not to say the whole ordeal wasn't painful. It was exceptionally so, and the additional physical recuperation he went through didn't help that any. For two weeks Lee was healed, worked to to exhaustion, and force fed proper nutrients and vitamins, all to speed along his full recovery.

He didn't know why they had taken such an interest in him, but he was simultaneously grateful and horrified by their special attention. He might not have minded it so much, if he had been able to recognize any of them, hold a conversation, or see the pretty Ninja girl again, but such was not his fate it seemed.

As the days went on Lee was also told about his new duties. He would be joining an elite group of Ninja, and it was at that point that Lee pretty much stopped listening. He was going to be a NINJA! He could scarcely believe it. He had never finished kicking or punching that rock apart, and yet here he was, getting exactly what he wanted.

He also heard a couple things about never telling anyone, high chance of death, extreme training, but what was that to him, a ninja? Ninjas had to deal with those types of things all the time, and he would gladly trade those concerns for the attention and responsibility and respect that went along with it.

As to the pain, well, he had kinda ended up taking the words of the Pretty Ninja Lady to heart. This was just another instance of pain, and he was just going to use it to make himself stronger. More pain, more strength, it seemed to follow. He always had heard vague stories of heroes, and they always seemed to go through the most horrendous of things.

So Lee really just saw the pain he was going through as another way to get stronger, and he desperately wanted to be at full strength again. They had told him that once he was up on his feet that he would be able to start taking part in training. Apparently they had found him to be the perfect age, and his talk with that man in the chair had been his interview.

He hadn't even known that was what that was, but he sure was glad he had passed. He barely remembered what he had said, but obviously he had impressed the man, which made sense, Lee could kick a rock pretty far, and he had even kicked that one man to sleep. He considered that quite impressive himself.

The room he was staying in had slowly been revealed to him. At first he had spent the first day of consciousness in the dark, but at some point, he couldnt tell whether it had been day or night, a doctor had come in and checked up on him. The lights had been turned on, and Lee had gotten to see him room for the first time clearly.

The room wasn't much, unfortunately. He had been hoping for mystic scrolls, and paintings of battles, with weapons hanging everywhere, but instead he had been confronted with bare walls of grey, a single hanging light with a cord attached to a box with a handle, and his bed. Nothing else but some complicated machines that seemed to be hooked up to him through weird bandages and some wires and other weird stuff. Lee, for the most part, ignored all that.

While the room wasn't much to look at, his doctors were. They were of different gender, statue, and size. But they all seemed to move the same way, and they didn't really speak except to ask him very quick questions about how he was feeling or whether or not his motor or brain functions were progressing. Not very fun, but then again, it was better than nothing.

The most fascinating thing though, was the masks. Each doctor had a different mask, and he never saw the same doctor twice. They also didn't really feel like doctors; they felt like the Pretty Ninja Lady (PNL for short in Lee's mind). He could have sworn that the few times he had blood taken that the syringe could have been used for a whole lot more than to just help him out. But they never hurt him, well, not outside of the medicinal practices at least, so he just figured that they were special doctors and left it at that.

The doctors never spoke either, even when he cried out during the physical rehabilitation. He worked hard, and he tried not to stop or anything, but they pushed him hard, and sometimes he was just too tired or it hurt too much. They would push him, gesture, and even grunt a couple of times, but they never spoke. It was a bit eerie, really. And Lee had been trying to get them to say something, anything, for a while now.

The little game he played was mostly a way to distract himself from the pain, and it did help. He found that his leg and arm and chest and neck and head had all been severely injured, with the worst being his leg and arm, of course. The pain was near constant, and when he first asked about some kind of painkiller, he got a very stern shake of the head, clear signal for "No".

He wasn't very happy with that for the first couple of days, but he pushed through it, just like he had pushed through the pain while PNL had carried him. He still remembered her words, and they seemed to give him some strength, so he did his best to convert the pain of rehabilitation and day to day activities to power and drive.

It was about two weeks later that things started to change. Lee had some sort of idea of how much time had passed, but he wasn't sure. The meals seemed regular, but he could have sworn that sometimes they were way too close together or far apart, and sometimes he would simply awaken without remembering that he had gone to sleep. It was all very strange.

The day that things changed, Lee was woken up by a man in a mask, but this man didn't have any doctor equipment nor the white lab coat the doctors had all been wearing. Instead he was dressed in black and grey functional clothing. Much like some of the Ninjas that Lee had seen. While most Ninjas had some sort of color though, this guy's outfit had none, just the swirling black and greys.

Lee was shaken awake, given clothes (all black and grey like the man's) that had come from a sturdy dresser that had just appeared somehow in his room, and then shown a door that, apparently, had always been there. Within the mystery door was a bathroom with all the toiletries he would need. He quickly washed up, with some prompting by the man in the mask, but was startled when a bell suddenly rang.

With the bell being rung, the man in the mask immediately grabbed Lee, who was in the middle of brushing his teeth, and carried him out. Lee hadn't even had time to put on his shoes! As Lee was carried through the hallway the man in the mask closed and shut his door giving Lee a small key, and then they were off. They sped through hallway after hallway and Lee quickly became confused about where they were and where they were going.

After a fair amount of time, maybe ten minutes if Lee had to guess, they were suddenly in a large room, brightly lit, with tons of stuff inside. There was an obstacle course, dummies, weapons, mats, bags, gloves, racks, pits, balance beams, ropes, ropes hanging from the ceiling, spikes, traps, and a row of similar aged kids to Lee all standing in a straight row, shoulder to shoulder.

It was then that Lee realized that the man who had carried him had disappeared somewhere, and that there was another man (or was it the same man?) standing in front of the children, staring at him. Lee quickly got into the line, but when he looked up the other man (must have been different for he had a different mask) was shaking his head "No" at Lee, then pointed at his wrist, made a couple of handsigns, and then pointed at Lee.

Lee had no idea what to do or what the man wanted. He figured he might be late? Or maybe he didn't have the proper equipment? Something to do with his wrist, maybe? Looking down the line, he wasn't getting any help from the kids; they all stared straight ahead, hardly blinking.

Suddenly the man was right in front of Lee, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. When Lee resisted a little, he was smacked in the butt, hard. That got Lee going and suddenly he was running around the large room, going slowly at first, but a couple of kicks from the man got him up to a pretty blistering pace for the young boy.

Lee completed a single loop and then started to stop, only to notice the man who seemed to be the leader making a circular motion with his pointer finger. "Guess I have to do more laps" Lee thought, beginning to jog around again, only to have the man suddenly appear and kick him, much harder this time, in the butt. Lee promptly picked up the pace.

Lee was barely jogging at this point, luckily the man leading the exercises was either ignoring him or realized that Lee had nothing more to give. He had long ago lost count of what lap he was on, and before, when he had still felt like not dying, he had watched what the others were doing, but now all of Lee's focus was on his next step, his feet painstakingly going forward.

There was a particularly hot burning in his right leg where the wound had been. It didn't feel like the burning in his chest or the pain that radiated from his other leg, it was a bit deeper, and it was beginning to worry Lee a bit. He had pushed himself before, of course, but this was starting to get a little crazy.

Lifting his head with considerable effort, Lee was able to make out the other children in the room taking a small break. They were all walking in small circles, arms raised above their heads, and if one of the stopped, the trainer would suddenly appear, shoving them forward, and getting progressively more violent if his "suggestion" wasn't followed.

He saw one child drop, a girl, maybe a year older than him. She was laid out on the ground, breathing heavily, and the man was nearly instantly by her side, picking her up and setting her on her feet. Her hair was green, nearly the same green as the PNL, and, again, he thought of the words that she had uttered to him at the most painful time of his life.

This burning in his leg, the tightness and weight on his chest, these were paltry bits of pain to that, and he had gotten through that, and he wasn't about to drop down and give up. He hadn't spent months just kicking rocks to not become a Ninja now, and these didn't seem like the type of people who would try real hard to keep him on this track.

In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if this was another test, just like that interview was. Heck, that wily man who interviewed him might be around here somewhere, Lee tried to look around, but decided against it, just taking his own word for it (god his head was heavy).

Lee focused, once more, on his legs, trying to get them to move and move and move, despite his muscles screaming at him. He was going to use this pain dammit; it was his and his alone, and it wasn't going to make any of his decisions. So if he decided to keep running the stupid legs and the stupid muscles would just have to deal with it.

Some amount of time later Lee was still going and unbeknownst to him the trainer had been keeping a very close eye on him. Lee had been running for nearly two hours now, and it was the longest the trainer had ever seen one of the new recruits go before. He wasn't about to stop, that was up to the boy to do, but he did need to make sure that the recruit didn't die. Root did not waste.

Lee could barely breathe, but he was still doing his best to swallow the pain, and swallowing it was exactly what it felt like he was doing. Every breath that he forced out and in seemed like it was ignited, and the fire that consumed his lungs had the eerie effect of making him colder rather than warming him up. Lee missed the heat of the pain that he had experienced earlier, but he knew that this was probably just another test, and he wanted the PNL to smile at him again like she did when he had dragged his mind through the pain of his leg and arm injury and out the other side.

He was pretty much just walking at this point, but it felt like he was sprinting. He didn't have the ability nor the will to look around, but was utterly focused on picking up his legs and dropping them down again in something that kind of resembled movement. He was still swallowing the pain, and it seemed to almost fill him up, making his limbs move on their own accord.

The pain wasn't something that was separate from him, it seemed to live in him and outside of him, like he was drawing it in and using it to make himself move. He was lightheaded and confused and moving, and that was the important part, the fact that he was moving. He had stopped sweating, he didn't know when, but he had just noticed that. It seemed weird.

The trainer watched the new recruit finish another lap, only for his leg to twitch, move up, and then come crashing down as the boy fell to the ground, legs twitching, arms still making the slight motion of running. He was there instantly, his well trained eyes taking in the seemingly automatic motion of the boy's muscles underneath the skin; muscles that didn't seem to realize that they should be stopping. As quick as he could the man picked up the boy and rushed him to the hospital. This wasn't something he saw very often.

Lee woke up the next day, somehow back in his bed. He had remembered running, maybe falling? But now he was back in his bed. That was strange. He didn't think he had made it back, but who knew?

Looking around, Lee could barely make out his room, or, at least, he assumed this was his room. He couldn't really tell, it didn't have many distinguishing marks. Either way, he figured he needed to get his clothes on, not only because the experience of having a man shove clothes into his face was less than idea, but also because Lee was starving. And back at the orphanage you didn't get food unless you were dressed.

Lee pushed back his covers and swung his legs out of bed, only to find a small tube sticking in his arm. Looking down at it, he saw that it was connected to a small machine that had a single screen. The screen simply said, "0", so Lee just shrugged and pulled it out, more than a little creeped out by the sensation. But he remembered having similar things in him the week after he had been carried somewhere by the nice PNL.

Jumping out of bed Lee was ready to get some clothes and food, only to fall flat on his face, his legs protesting in pain. Lee rubbed his cheek with his hand, well, that was weird. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, only now noticing that his legs were shaking.

Groaning, Lee pushed himself to his feet, standing unsteadily, and then his legs started to cramp. The muscles screamed in protest at him as they locked themselves down with an iron finality. Lee collapsed again.

'Okay, this hurts, but I really want some breakfast.' Lee whined in his own head, more annoyed than anything else. 'Stupid legs need to move, so my stupid legs are going to move.' He pushed himself up to a standing position once again, leaving a hand on his bed to give him further support. He tried taking some steps, which he could do, with some shakiness and a whole lot of pain.

'Guess I'm just getting stronger,' Lee thought through gritted teeth. Slowly Lee made his way past his bed, taking some extra time once he had to remove his hand from the cushion to go any further. He wasn't too thrilled by the situation but he settled for grumbling and occasionally thinking about the PNL.

She was pretty much the closest thing he had to a mother, and while he didn't really think, consciously, of her that way, it was true nonetheless. She was the first woman who had ever cradled him, and it had felt good, even with the pain. In fact, he suddenly wondered if he got hurt badly enough again if she would hold him again. He looked down at his legs, groaning with every movement. This probably wasn't hurt enough. Well, he could figure something out probably. Ninjas got hurt all the time.

Speaking of Ninjas, there seemed to be Ninjas all around him. Which was weird, and it seemed like there was some training going on. WAS HE A NINJA! Lee looked down at his hands; were these Ninja hands? He looked at his quaking legs, 'Ninjas' legs don't quake though'. Lee frowned at that, head drooping slightly.

But... what if he was a Ninja trainee. Lee gasped out loud with that thought; there had been training going on earlier, with the other children. And that stern man was wearing one of those cool masks, and he had noticed that the man who had carried him and deposited him had moved very quickly. Oh man oh man oh man! What if I am now working to become a Ninja? That would be so great. So so so so so great! I have got to get thank you present for that Ninja Lady when I see her.

Which left Lee with the very puzzling question of what you get a Ninja.

Shaking his head and deciding he would deal with that later, Lee continued slowly to the dresser at the back wall, moving a single step at a time. Eventually he got there, rubbed his legs a bit and then began the painful process of dressing himself. He choked on a scream when he had to fully bend his legs, sitting on the floor, to get his pants on. It was the same exact thing he had been wearing the previous(?) day when he had been deposited in the large room. They smelled a lot better than what Lee used to wear so he didn't mind at all.

Lee had just struggled himself into his shoes when the same loud alarm sounded that had heralded the arrive of the man in the mask. Lee jumped a little only to cry out a bit himself due to the added strain on his legs. He hoped they would get better soon. They were being super stupid.

Last time this had happened that man had just shown up and whisked him away, but after watching the door for about a minute Lee figured he wouldn't be showing up. Lee was worried about this, he wanted to go back and do more training. If he trained more, he could become a Ninja faster, and then he would be awesome. Lee very much wanted to be awesome.

Lee slowly shuffled his way to the doorway and looked out. There was no one around him, no one coming or going, and it was looking more and more like he was on his own. 'Am I not supposed to go?' Lee questioned, looking back and forth down the hallway. 'Well, that's stupid. I am going to go whether they want me to or not. A little foot pain isn't going to keep me from doing sweet Ninja stuff.'

Lee stepped out into the hallway and tried to make heads or tails of where he needed to go. The walls were just as featureless and grey as he remembered, so that wasn't much of a help. He vaguely remembered the man turning right out of his room when he had carried him to the gym. So Lee went right.

Very quickly Lee figured out that he had a shoddy memory, and that he wasn't very good at figuring his way through anything that wasn't the orphanage or the surrounding area. He seemed to be well and truly lost, but his legs were starting to hurt a little less as they got stretched so he continued on. Plus, sweet Ninja stuff beckoned, who was he to refuse?

Moving on, Lee came to another grey and featureless hallway and sighed at his predicament. He didn't seem to be making any progress, and he couldn't even tell whether or not he had been here before. In his frustration, Lee kicked a wall, leaving a small smear of dirt and soot on it from the bottom of his feet. After he had finished yelping about the murderous strain that had placed on his bones and muscles, Lee moved on again, barely jogging through the halls. Some unknown amount of time later, Lee was searching the walls for clues, hoping for a sign or something, really anything that could help him determine his location. A few halls over, he finally found something, his own foot print on the hallway wall. 'Well, nuts' Lee thought, 'Guess I'm back to where I used to be.' Lee looked at his footprint and sighed again, only to have his head jerk up and a slow smile to form on his face. 'I can use the footprints to mark where I've been! Then I'll be able to find the right place!'

So Lee started running down hallways, marking everywhere he went with a sharp kick, followed by a grunt of pain, and more running (he didn't seem to realize that he could smear some dirt using his hands, but it wouldn't be till later that Lee would realize such an obvious mistake). Lee continued on his way, making slow but sure progress.

It must have been hours later that Lee finally found where he needed to be. The large gymnasium was filled with kids, with only one visible adult. It was hard to tell if this was the same man that had been there yesterday, but Lee was only given a moment to take in the situation before another man appeared at his side.

Taking his hand, the man in a bear mask firmly led Lee to a table set up in the corner, facing the walls. There was a huge book and a large stack of paper with writing materials. The man made some handsigns, pointed, and then seemingly disappeared. Lee looked at the book and the paper in confusion; he understood that he was supposed to do something involving writing, maybe drawing?

And much like most four year olds given ambiguous directions, Lee started doing whatever he wanted, namely trying to draw a Ninja. However, once he started to put brush to paper a hand, that suddenly appeared, grabbed his brush, opened the huge book on the table, and mimed writing with the bush.

Lee looked to the book, then back to the brush, then to the hand that was attached to the bear mask man. The bear mask man simply stared impassively back, mimed writing, and then made a series of handsigns. Lee took the brush and attempted to draw in the book, but was once again stopped. After this blunder, the masked man simply put a finger on the text of the book, and then with his other hand (moving both hands perfectly and without any trouble) began to write out exactly what his finger was pointing at in the book. He stopped after the first line, then pointed at Lee, and made the same handsigns he had made earlier.

Lee took the brush back from the man and started to copy the text, only understanding about half of the words. It seemed to be a list of chapters, chapters that detailed something about "fights"? "Wars"? And a bunch of other words that Lee couldn't puzzle out. But as Lee started to diligently copy down the page, the masked man disappeared once again, so he figured that he was doing what he was supposed to do.

A fair amount of time had passed before Lee could copy down the first page. He had not had a lot of experience writing, and his fingers weren't quite used to holding a brush, nor writing very legibly, but when he had smeared a word or written something especially poorly a hand had appeared, made his piece of paper vanish, then selected a new piece of paper from the stack and set it before him. So he had gotten better.

However, once he was done with the first page and set down his brush, having written it out neatly and nicely, he was shocked when the hand once again appeared and turned the page before making the same handsigns from before (Lee now recognized that they must stand for something like: "Copy this"). Lee's frown turned upside down though when he was able to make out the words, "A good ninja...". Apparently this book had to do with Ninjas! And while Lee couldn't understand most of the words he started copying down the page with a frenzy, only to have the paper vanished by the masked man as his writing was out of control. Lee looked up at the man, smiled, and started to concentrate on writing neatly and nicely.

After several hours Lee had only managed to copy about 10 pages, between his excitement, poor brushwork, and lack of patience (4 years old!) he had more pages "vanished" from his Bear Mask Ninja friend then he could even count to. However, once Lee had started to begin his slow progress on the 11th page, which was finally starting to get into some of the rules that all Ninjas should follow, the Bear Man showed up, took the brush, signed something with his hands, and then bid Lee to stand up.

Turning around Lee saw that the other kids in the training room were all barely standing. Some seemed happy, a couple angry, and more than a few were looking at him with a mixture of jealously and pity. However, all of those emotions quickly disappeared once the Bear Man made some sort of signal, most of the kids immediately snapping to attention and trying to look... bored? Puzzled? Lee wasn't sure, but he did witness the Bear Man suddenly disappear and reappear near the kids who weren't standing at attention and smack them. Then with their attention fully focused, he made another series of hand signs, smacked them again, and then made the hand signs one more time before staring straight at Lee.

Immediately Lee snapped at attention, trying to copy the kids in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye though, he saw the Bear Man make a single hand signal, then stare at him. Lee didn't know what it was supposed to mean, so he simply shrugged and looked at the Ninja questioningly. The man waved Lee over, then remade the previous hand signs and then signaled for Lee to stop. Lee stopped, and the man made the previous hand signals, and Lee, hesistant at first, came forward. The man indicated his pleasure with the barest of nods, and sheparded Lee to his proper place in line with the other kids with hand signals.

Once in line, Lee was smacked around a bit, on his arms, legs, head, everywhere, and once Lee stopped resisting he realized that he was being prodded into the right "attention stance" or whatever it was. Once that was done, the Bear Man started walking out of the gym, made that hand signal that meant come, and all the kids followed him out to, what Lee learned, was lunch.

Lunch was a bland affair in company, conversation, and edibles. The kids who did try to speak were pretty quickly silenced, at first with a hand over the mouth plus a signal, and then after that with a quick smack followed by more signs. A couple of the more enterprising kids were trying to communicate through a combination of their own signs and signs they had learned, but they weren't making much headway, even if it seemed that this was an acceptable way to communicate.

Quickly enough, after probably consuming just enough nutrients for their bodies (certainly none of it was wasted on taste or spice), they were herded back into the gymnasium. They spent the next several hours, Lee had no idea how long it actually was, doing exercises, stretching, running, and completing obstacle courses.

None of it was too difficult, but it certainly kept them busy, and always there was Bear Mask Ninja with his hand signals. He repeated them often, and by the end of the day Lee could at least recognize some of the more basic commands, like: "Come here", "Stop", and "Go".

Lee was finally brought to a stop by the Bear Mask Ninja suddenly appearing in front of him, the hand signal for stop upheld in front of Lee's face. Lee hadn't realized it, but all the other kids had all stopped and were lined up. Most of them barely able to stand, but Lee still felt pretty good, or at least he did until he stopped, and then he felt a wave of exhaustion and soreness descend upon him, shaking his body from head to toe. He was barely able to stagger to his own place in line after some prompting from the Bear Mask Ninja. After standing there for a minute, all the kids in a line, they were signaled to go, and so they went, back to their rooms. Lee finding it a lot easier to get back with the marks from his feet still visible on the walls.

Elsewhere the Bear Mask Ninja gave a report on the newest batch of recruits. In a room futures were discussed. In silence Lee was examined. And in darkness decisions were made.

Lee would later learn that his daily schedule of waking, finding the gymnasium, exercise and reading, followed by lunch, finished with more exercise went on for a month, exactly. But this wouldn't be information he would have until he made it through a year of torture.

Lee had been getting stronger. He had been feeling it keenly for a while now, and although he still had no idea how long he had been training to be a Ninja, a prospect that still brought a smile to his face, he knew it had been quite a while.

For a while Lee thought he would be able to figure out how long he had been working on stuff based on his sleep schedule or food schedule (Lee had quickly realized that if he kept track of his working out he could tell just how much he was improving, and he loved that), however, his schedule was so wacky that he constantly lost track of all sembleance of time. He was woken up in the middle of sleeping, forced to not eat or eat too much, not allowed to rest, or forced into small enclosed spaces for hours and hours of time, possibly even days. And despite Lee's best efforts he had no idea for how long he had been getting significantly stronger or when it started.

This also had the side effect of when making him disconcertingly calm when he was woken up in the middle of night, presumably, by a Ninja in a mask and then blindfolded and carried away. Lee had gotten pretty good at navigating the halls of the facility he was training in, but sometimes, him and the other children would be blindfolded and taken somewhere. It was kinda fun, the Ninja moved fast and the sensation of being carried always reminded Lee of the PNL (who he still hadn't seen since she rescued him), so he never minded the forced relocations.

This time was different though. The Ninja had plopped Lee down in a bare room, pretty normal, except for the single chair in it. It had been a while since Lee had seen a chair, even when he had been made to copy the Ninja Rule Book (besides the first time) there hadn't been a chair. One of the other children, who was quite good at the hand signals, had tried to ask about the lack of chairs. The Bear Mask Ninja's response (he was the Ninja they saw the most of during training) had simply flashed the sign for strength, and then had made the kid start doing laps when he tried to ask again.

Lee was still pretty tired from being woken up in the middle of his sleep cycle so he decided to collapse into the chair, trying to wake himself up despite the fact that the Ninja teachers had been trying, for quite a while, to break him of his habit of having to *wake up* rather than just leaping to attention immediately.

As Lee collapsed into the chair he never saw the Ninja who had carried him there blur through the seals for ninjutsu or melt into the shadows as the chair suddenly sprouted living tendrils of metal, steel appendages of the steel chair, that wrapped themselves around the boy and held him down, flesh flush against the cold roughness of the chair.

Lee tried to call out, his eyes widely searching for what was happening, pupils straining to figure out the darkness that lay before him, struggling against his bonds. But it all for naught, as a band of similiar metal clamped tight around his mouth, smothering his cry prematurely in his own face, his breathe barely warming the icy chill of his gag.

Lee was well and truly scared now, and he started to cry a bit. His tears something he could feel going down his cheeks. He hadn't cried like this since the PNL had carried him away, and so he hoped that she would do the same here and now. He shouted with his mind, hoping and somehow knowing she would be able to hear him. Convinced that his Ninja Lady would let no harm come to him; that she was his samurai in shining armor. He rallied against his own doubts, his tears creating small rivulets and rivers upon his own face, as he battled against everything: the darkness, the bounds, and his own flesh, working his way, inch by inch against it all. He raged and attacked and pleaded, offering everything up to her. He offered it all, and he bargained and pleaded and cursed and felt it all. And he waited. In the darkness of some underground monstrosity, bound to a chair that chaffed and stung, alone with no one, Rock Lee shed his name and feelings into the cold air, and he waited. He waited.

A/N: Well that is chapter 3. I'm so sorry it took so long, but I am so goddamn lazy I can barely stand it myself. I would love to thank a couple of people who took their time out to review and let me know what they thought of this. If you are starting to grow attached to any of the characters or want to know what will happen, you should annoy the fuck out of me with PM's and the like. Guilt drives me better than any artistic need to express myself, so I urge you all to take advantage of that. And to repeat:

For anyone who cares:

1. This is AU (it might be AU in the sense of "what if Lee was in Root" or it might go so far as "What if Akatsuki was just a small piece in the reformation and transformation of the world at large"  
>2. People are going to be smart in this, as much as possible, people will not be very DBZ (shouting out attacks, powering up for really long periods, not using all-powerful wishes in stupid ways). If you managed to claw your way to the head of a SECRET NINJA SOCIETY you are not going to put obvious seals on people. Really, if you ever want to know if someone is in Root all you would have to do is ask them anything about Root, if they can't answer then they are in Root (and to make sure all you have to do is give them the piece of information first. Doesn't stop them from revealing it if you ask them about it immediately after. The seal prevents Root members from ever talking about Danzo or Root, regardless if your interrogators already have that information). 3. It is not easy to become Kage or even Jounin. By the end of Naruto it seems like everyone in Naruto's class could wipe the floor with ANBU (who are jounin), and they are all very young. There has to be more to being a ninja than just having some talent, special eyes, or containing a bijuu. So, expect jounin to fuck up chuunin and everyone else. These are serious people who you don't ever see kill you, or if you do, it is because they are about to release some serious fucking power.<br>4. Summons are really cool. That's going to be part of my world way more. Fuck yeah, giant frogs? Snakes? Goddamn punk rocker dogs? Yes please.  
>5. Faster updates hopefully, fuck. *BlueGrass54 - totally fucked that up. Yes it is supposed to be Ri (not Rin) my bad. Thank you for pointing that out! Keep reading please *NappyboyRep - Thank you! I'll try to keep it that way *Foxxy1st - ^^ Thank you for the review *LeexSakuRocks - I agree. The lack of Lee is a fucking atrocity, him and Tenten I think deserve way more, simply because they don't have any stupid genetic shit making them inherently awesome. They got good just by working, like normal people do.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4: To Draw Blood From a Rock

It was after 3 hours that Lee gave up on yelling. He had been there for three hours, he did not know this, he only knew that his throat was rough and scratchy, almost feeling as bad as his arms, which were scrapped raw from his struggles against the metal bands that encircled his arms, legs, neck, and torso. He had tried to force himself into a dozen different positions, doing his best to fight against unyielding steel but to no result. Exhausted, head hanging, Lee swallowed spit, feeling his own saliva burn down his tortured throat. His yells had been for naught, no one had come, even when he had yelled for his Pretty Ninja Lady, Ri. That had hurt especially bad, but he had quickly rationalized it to her being away. But she would surely learn of this eventually and rescue him once again. But to be honest, as of right now, he wasn't in too much trouble. Or, at least it was nothing compared to what had happened when he first met her. Heck, he could still feel all his limbs!

His experience that one day had colored his world since then. Sure, his training had been rough, rougher than anything he had ever put himself through, but it was like a candle to the sun that had been the continuing pain of that one day and the week that followed. This had become even more clear when his fellow classmates had seemed to wilt under certain orders, having trouble pushing through small amounts of pain to accomplish their goals. And yet, thinking back on that wasn't giving him much relief as his mind raged and his body tried to meet the increasing demands from his overly ravenous pack of neural synapses clamoring for release.

In fact those first three hours felt like 3 minutes to Lee, for Lee was panicked, and panic does funny things to people. A lot of those who have been truly scared, scared because of a life or death situation, talk about how things slow down, they get tunnel vision, and everyone around them moves slowly. But then ask them how long it all took, how long were they attacked, how much time did it take for them to get from point A to point B, and they'll respond with laughable answers. "The whole fight took just a couple of seconds", they'll say, fully aware that by the time the battle was over the sun had set. Things might slow down, but that isn't because people get more perceptive, it is because the whole world speeds up, your heart, your brain, your blood, your life, it all tries to squeeze as much out of your last moments as possible, but even your adrenaline suffused brain can't change the passage of time, and so, Lee, after 3 hours of struggling and yelling, only felt as if minutes had passed, despite the protests of his lungs, muscles, and brain, and as his labored short breaths (the bands of metal restraining him were not loose) were expelled into the dark room he remembered the last time he had felt his heart pound so hard his ribcage hurt.

It hadn't been easy to make friends in the Ninja camp, in fact, it was pretty much downright impossible. Talking was not allowed. Hand signals not in the command book were not allowed ("Hi, how are you, would you like to be my friend" was not in the handbook. Although, "A friend of mine might find some pleasures of a very physical nature if they would simply allow me entrance" was. But no one really felt that that was quite the same thing.). Whispering was not allowed. Helping others was not allowed. And all of it was explained, with that sort of Adult Logic that never seemed quite right, but who were you to argue? Plus, Lee had been riding the thrill of being trained as a Ninja for all three months, and would, he expected, possibly feel that same thrill the rest of his life (assuming he ever got out of here).

Regardless, there had been one time that he had made a friend, or as close as possible given the circumstances. Their training almost always took a turn for the explicitly dangerous once the basics were grasped. In this particular scenario they had been learning how to properly deal with wired shuriken. How to properly care for the wire, how to make sure it seemed invisible until the last moment, and how to use each of their fingers to control different aspects of a single shuriken or to control several shuriken at the same time. Lee, as always, had been excited to learn such a skill. And he had thrown himself into it with wild, disturbingly childlike abandon.

Like with most things that he was asked to do Lee went after this task with a special amount of gusto, picking the heaviest strings and shuriken he could, which, apparently got very, very heavy. The total weight of the string, the 8 shuriken, and the gloves that they were using (a precaution when dealing with novices, that string was thin enough to slice through a digit) was almost 1/5th of Lee's weight (about 12 pounds). And while at first he struggled immensely, he had eventually gotten the hang out it, even if it had taken him 4 more hours than anyone else.

That was another thing that Lee really loved about this training. You had as much time as you wanted to figure things out. Usually training on a single topic was split into 5 days: one day for basics, one day for advanced training, then a day for theory, then a day of team training, and lastly a day for testing. You could spend 12 hours on one thing or 4 hours, just as long as you got it, there was no day to day grades, only the test at the end. That was the only important part as far as the trainers were concerned. And woe to anyone who didn't manage to perform well on test day; failure was not tolerated and if you could beat the failure out of someone then every person in that training program would be the most successful people ever.

Lee had gone through the first two days easily enough, following his old pattern of making things extra difficult, failing for most of the first day, and then suddenly exploding with some serious skill and flair on the later half of the second day. He had suffered through theory pretty well, knowing it was important, and having taken many of the ideas in the Ninja book he had been made to copy to heart, one of the main tenets being information is a power that never dies. Even with that in mind though, Lee had a hard time dealing with the total lack of doing stuff. Lee had decided early on that "doing stuff" was his way of the Ninja, cause not doing stuff was just torturous (an ironic statement, looking back on it).

It was the next day that a series of events landed Lee hyperventilating, soaked with sweat and blood, and the world speeding up in a whirlwind of adrenaline and terror.

Lee walked in on the fourth day ready to work with a team. He enjoyed it quite a lot, mostly for the fact that it allowed him to measure some of his skill against a fellow trainee before the big test day. He always got nervous the day of, but being able to spend time the day before and do as well or sometimes even better than another trainee put his mind at rest, at least for the rest of that day. Not that he was ruthlessly competitive, tips and tricks inevitably got traded around, despite the fact that the trainers, in particular Bear Mask Ninja, glared whenever they saw the skills of one student being passed around. And yet it happened, and that was another reason that Lee loved teamwork day: other students' ideas were so different from his own that sometimes they yielded some really amazing improvements, and Lee loved to improve, whether it was kicking a rock farther or learning how to stick to a wall silently for a minute longer, Lee was all about the improvement.

In particular, Lee was curious to know if his partner had experimented with using his pinky fingers to control the shuriken, cause Lee had had a bit of trouble getting those particular fingers to do everything he wanted. Standing in line Lee thought of other questions he might try to ask, or mime, to his new, temporary partner as the Bear Mask Ninja came by and paired trainees up randomly. Lee was signaled to go to a section of the gym (the gym was divided into many large squares, each with their own designated code for easy directions and accountability) and ran off to his spot. There he came across his partner, a girl, with spiky red hair that went everywhere. And before Lee could even raise his hand to wave she immediately she started signaling, using way too many signs for anything reasonable to say. It seemed like she was saying, "Help Incoming *then she jumped a little* Medicine Yellow *jump* Non-combatant Aggressive Medicine Evacuation *jump* Incoming Safe *jump* Killed Aggressive Incoming *then she stamped her foot*. Lee had no clue what was going on, and even though she repeated what she had signed several more times, even with the jumping and stomping, Lee just stood there, watching the dance of fingers and feet, wondering if this girl was just going to keep doing this or if he would be able to mime his own questions. Finally she started to slow down, signing a word, then holding up fingers that were equal to the number of letters in the word and then pointing to the first finger emphatically, and she worked her way through the whole message, keeping a keen eye out for Bear Mask Ninja. And that was when (a good 15 minutes after she started) it hit him; it was the first letter! She was only signing so that he could know the first letter of each word! So, "Medicine Yellow" was My, and the rest... Oh! It was, "My name is Kai." The jumps must be spaces and the stomp a period? It must have been. And just like that Lee made his first friend.

Kai was fairly insane. She had pretty much ignored her pinky fingers and went straight for the toes. Lee had no idea how that would be practical, but she had gotten surprisingly good at it, considering the obvious handicap. And while her progress was impressive, it became way less impressive when she had to get on her hands, do a handstand, and then attack, poorly, with the shuriken. One of them actually got pretty close, maybe, if there had been a strong wind inside, to hitting Lee, whose own attacks toward the girl were being dodged by some kind of bizarre combination of impressive gymnastics and falling down none too gently. And all throughout, her eyes glimmered, her face stayed impassive, and her fingers constantly signed, "Help Aggressive" over and over. Lee had a much harder time containing his laughter, and earned a couple of whacks from the nearest trainer (Ninjas, apparently, did not laugh).

That was just the warm up though, the real crux of the day would be navigating an obstacle course with your partner, using the shuriken to destroy targets, avoid attacks, and overcome certain parts of the course that could not be done by yourself. It was quite the behemoth of a course, held in a separate room. It was always the same course that they were tested on but it went through some fairly radical changes so that they wouldn't learn any patterns or be faced with obstacles that didn't push them to use their new skills. This particular iteration of the course was very spaced out, apparently one of the big things they would be doing would be using the shuriken like some kind of grappling hook if possible. It would be difficult to tell just how much of a reach things would be until they were actually faced with the problem. Not that they would have a ton of time to sit and analyze those sorts of things. One of the consistent parts of the course was that decisions needed to be made on the fly, sometimes literally, and that was a commitment that the trainers were dedicated too, as the attacks made on the students were fast and furious.

When it came time for Lee and Kai's turn, their styles, somehow seemed to mesh quite well. Lee was always a direct kind of kid, want to kick the rock farther? Start kicking it harder, not so much a creative type. And Kai, well, Kai was anything but direct, although she certainly could be. It wasn't a matter really of being direct or not, it was more of a matter of what would you normally expect a person to do, and then Kai would find all the options that you never even considered, and then, somehow, make it look like it wasn't the most bizarre or worst option. Not that she was particularly graceful, but at least she was on the less traveled road. Regardless, the two styles were working out well, with Lee driving forward, a battering ram, while Kai threaded all over it, covering some blind spots, giving a hand here or there. Lee had to step in a couple of times for her, pushing his way through the things that couldn't just be skirted or creatively avoided. Most of the other students who worked together definitely worked well together, but it almost always involved compromise, a kind of bland type of teamwork, instead Lee and Kai were just meshing, and it was showing, as they added some flair and showy moves and big smiles.

Currently they were almost at the end, navigating their way through two large wooden pillars along with several floating platforms, placed haphazardly and in extremes of vertical height. The pillars were set up to be far enough from each other that to jump from one to another would be impossible, even with the extra reach of the shuriken. They were also nearly 60ft off the ground, so falling would be a bad idea. Presumably the vertical platforms were where any kind of attack would be coming from, and so, with an eye on the platforms Kai and Lee sprung into action. Kai went first, leaping high into the air, while twirling slightly, ending up facing Lee as she begun to descend. Lee, at the apex of her jump, sent his shuriken rocketing towards her. As Kai started to descend, she linked her shuriken with his, wrapping it around several times to make a kind of chain, with her wire still wrapped up around the bracers that covered her arm. Then, descending, and with the extra pull from Lee, Kai started to make a slow circle, and that is when the arrows, spears, and shuriken were launched at her; they came from the shadows, not the platforms, which surprised her a bit. But these kids weren't being trained for Ninja for nothing, and as the projectiles zeroed in on Kai she simply rotated her arm, letting the wire uncoil itself and suddenly adding distance between herself and Lee, letting the potentially dangerous weaponry pass harmlessly by. On his end, Lee set his feet, Kai was reaching the bottom of the circle they were tracing, and it would be up to his strength and her momentum to get her to the next pillar. As she rushed downwards and then started to rise, the string taunt and Lee grunting and sweating, more projectiles were released, and Kai uncoiled even more wire, allowing her to dodge without compromising the momentum that Lee and her had harnessed. At this point she was nearly horizontal from Lee, and rapidly speeding up to get above him, all according to their maybe not so well thought out plan. Either way it was working, and as Kai let out the last bits of uncoiled chain, they got to a truly terrifying that speed that just put a smile on her face. With the majority of the projectiles spent, it was no problem for Kai to avoid the rest of them due to her changing speed. There were somethings that the machines that spat fire and death at them could adjust to, small girls swinging from a wire in a full 360 degrees was not one of them.

Lee, still on the platform that looked out over the two pillars, began to swing his arms, trying to add even more speed to Kai's already impressive trajectory. He had to make sure she would actually make it to the pillar, because while there were the other platforms that were scattered, they were either too high up to reach with her current pathing or so far down that to hit it would likely break her ankles, so he really had one shot at this, and while accuracy was important (they had both figured that if she was going to miss she could simply unleash another shuriken and wire and pull herself to the pillar. And with that last thought, Lee swung with all his might, and Kai, sailing through the air slammed into the first pillar, her feet scrambling with purchase as one hand held tightly to the wire as the other tried to bear hug the wood along with her feet. She ended up sliding quite a bit, but stopped by a combination of her monkey like skills and the wire finally running out of slack, placing strain, once again, on Lee. But both of them shared a smiled as Lee tied off the wire on his bracer and signed at her to make sure she was good and ready. After a quick, one handed response of affirmative, it was Lee's turn, which thankfully would be easier.

At this point with Kai at the pillar, all that had to happen was for Lee to run and jump, trying to get the longest hang time her could while moving forward, and using some of the extra slack that would generate, Kai would tie the wire around the wood pillar (during her signing with Lee she had rigged a temporary harness with the rope that they had all been required to carry since learning how useful rope was in any quantity during one of the first practical training weeks) and when Lee ran out of slack, he would be in for a sharp stop but after that he could simply climb up and then they would redo everything. As far as ninja trainees were concerned, 'easy peasy' (Lee figured they could only die, like, 3 different ways, and that is so few ways!). So, Lee leapt, Kai coiled wire, and after a jarring stop that nearly wrenched his shoulder out of its socket, Lee stopped and rested. Then after some fairly difficult climbing Lee finally made his way up to Kai, and she beamed a huge smile, and Lee signed, "ready again?" only for her to make a suggestion, and that is when everything went to shit.

Kai was standing on a platform, cheering in a grunty sort of way, as Lee started to make it to the apex of the 360 degree circle they were tracing in the space between the pillars. He had dodged the projectiles just like she had, letting loose with the wire a bit more to add sudden distance, and that had jerked her pretty hard, but she was sure the same had happened to him when she had made similar movements. Anyway, as she watched him sail overhead, she braced herself, wrapping one of her legs around the pillar. She had managed to loosen up her harness a bit so that she could have more ease of movement, since she would need to jump out soon after Lee landed (stationary targets on pillars strapped into things that kept them falling to their death were still targets as far as anyone in the room was concerned). She had noticed that this didn't seem to be a concern for Lee though, and just as well, he seemed very eager to throw himself into the mix, so he wasn't standing still much anyway. Watching him sail through the air Kai was feeling particularly happy. She had finally found a pretty good friend, someone who actually had the nerves and guts to converse back with her, even if he had been agonizingly slow to pick up the way in which she was speaking. She had originally tried to just speak out-loud to people, but the Trainers had jumped down in her throat and isolated her as punishment. And later, when she had come up with this system, she had a lot of time to think isolated, she had found that no one had the guts to return the conversation, whether it be due to fear of the Trainers, justified, or just disinterest, how dare they, she was soooo interesting! Regardless, it didn't matter much now, Lee, whether it was guts or stupidity, had talked back, and as Kai smiled once more, lost in warm, fuzzy thoughts, she saw Lee begin to hurtle towards the pillar, felt the wire go taunt, and then in a split second she was ripped from the harness, her leg that had been wrapped around the pillar was on fire, and she was sailing too, pinwheeling at a terrifying speed. She was no longer smiling.

It had been nearly a month since anyone had heard someone speak above the quietest whisper (and even that was rare, mostly due to the fairly extreme punishment it merited), so when the stunning scream of a girl was choked out and scattered across the room most everyone paid attention.

Lee had enjoyed the initial jump a lot, the sensation of free falling and knowing it would turn out alright was just as he had imagined when he had accepted the offer of Kai's for him to be the one to be flung to the pillar. And he had been delighted to beat the dangerous weaponry heading his way by simply uncoiling small portions of the wire wrapped around the bracer on his arm. In fact he had even played a small game, seeing just how little wire he could unwrap and still avoid all physical harm. His best was when he felt the a particularly sharp knife part his hair, seeing some of his hair fall past his ear out of the corner of his eye.

Unfortunately and unknown to Lee, this meant that at the end of his arc, as he was flying to the pillar with his slightly larger body and much heavier wire, he didn't have very much wire left at all, which meant, that as he was about 3 feet away, the wire went taunt, and his combined weight and speed ripped Kai from her harness and ripped a scream from her lung. The jerk of her weight suddenly being added, slowed Lee, but did not stop him, and he hit the pillar, but the shock of that impact, lessened as it was, barely registered, instead Lee had the totality of his focus on Kai, who was pinwheeling through the air fast enough she was unable to get a proper breath of air, and, more importantly, she was falling, not a controlled, "I got this" kind of fall, but a "I'm falling, help me" kind of falling, and that was when a flood of adrenaline, the likes of which he had only partially experienced when his body had been shattered, streamed into his veins and brain.

Lee immediately sprung into action, twisting back toward where Kai was, his feet clutching the pillar he had so recently smacked into. A second to figure out what needed to be done, and Lee exploded from the pillar, hurtling down towards one of the scattered platforms, with Kai falling like she was, he needed to get to a platform as quick as possible, if he had stayed at the wooden pillar he would not have enough time to get a harness rigged, which would have meant being pulled down with Kai when she ran out of wire and her weight and momentum pulled on his end. All of this went through Lee's mind as a single sentence, "GET DOWN GET PLATFORM GET HER!" and so, not questioning his adrenaline fueled mind, Lee pushed with all his might, aiming for the platform, and when he hit he hit hard, the force of his controlled fall spraining both his ankles, breaking at least one toe, and sending him to his knees which parted the skin on his knees like water, sending blood onto the platform, but that was something Lee had no time for, as he frantically wound the wire around his bracer, making sure the wire would not slip out of his grasp and send Kai falling to her death.

Knees slick with blood, Lee had a single moment to take a breath, and then he was stomped into the platform, his arm instantly becoming dislocated as he screamed into the wood only to stop suddenly as he realized he was sliding to the edge, so he pulled back and screamed a bit again, as his shoulder was wrenched even further out of the socket. He rolled onto his side, still sliding inch by inch to the edge, where, he assumed, Kai was dangling and in a similar situation. He twisted again, getting his butt under him and digging the pliable and soft shoes he was wearing into the wood, trying to gain traction, but the blood was making the platform slippery, which, bizarrely was partially from his bleeding head (how did that happen?). He tried to jerk the wire toward him with his other hand, but all he was rewarded with was a cry from below (it was Kai, thank the heavens, she was alive!) and a small pause in his sliding, but then it started up again. Lee knew he needed traction but with the adrenaline flowing through him he was having a hard time thinking, let alone solving a problem. So he did something straightforward and stupid. Removing his hand from the wire and letting all the weight hang on his arm with the bracer, the arm that was dislocated, he took his other hand and smashed into the platform just to his right over and over, the wood splitting knuckles and splintering wood. The pain of it stabbed deep into him, following the bone as the nerves in his hand were punished again and again, flaring up and relaxing for brief seconds only to be hurled back into the fray again and again, as quick as possible. Lee was still sliding bit by bit. After a couple seconds in which Lee fought back tears and ruminated briefly on how ruined and mangled his hand must be, the adrenaline was going into overload and and nearly made him ignore the problem at hand (hah) and focus on stupid things: like consequences. Shaking his head he kept punching until he finally punched through the wood all the way, creating a small, jagged hole. Bringing his hand up to his face he saw that it was a ruined mess, and so, with a twist (which was grotesquely helped by the amount of blood that was on the platform) he went 180 degrees, with his head facing where the wire disappeared off the platform and hooked his legs into the hole, hardly feeling the bite of wood into flesh off the pained screaming of his right hand and left shoulder.

And Lee stopped sliding. So Lee started pulling.

He pulled and pulled as his legs and hand and shoulder died. And he pulled harder once he heard the slight whimper from Kai, and then he figured he was done, but looking behind him, face scratching against wood, he saw that he wasn't and he kept pulling, kept pulling even when he knew he must be done because he couldn't do any more and kept pulling as the muscles in his shoulder seemed to detach themselves and his fist ached, and inch by inch the wood digging into his calves pierced further and further. And after a lifetime of adrenaline and hurt and harsh breaths that seemed to do nothing for the burning in his lungs and screaming in his mind that he couldn't drop her, that the PNL hadn't dropped him, that the pain would make him stronger, she had said so, and this was just pain, just pain, just pain; Lee pulled Kai up, grabbed her, touched her, and brought her to him, and simply stopped doing anything.

Some unknown time later (later he would learn he was only out for a minute or two, tops), Kai was tearing up pieces of her and Lee's clothing bandaging his wounds, and as she put a poorly made bandage over the cut on his head he came back to life, bewildered and hurt and more than a little scared. But as he saw Kai leaning over him he managed a smile, which broke out into a pained grin as she signaled, "Help Incoming" at him, which either meant that help was on the way or her just saying "hi" but either way he was pretty happy, everything considered. His right hand, his left shoulder, and his calves were bandaged, and... they were still on the platform. He would have thought that they would have been removed by now and sent to the infirmary. He looked questioningly at Kai, and she simply sighed and pointed at the finish line, clearly visible just a ways past the 2nd pillar, which was much closer now. Right, of course, these training exercises were up to the trainees, no one else. They might remove you if you died, or were knocked unconscious, or dead, but not before that. And if you gave up you were out, forever. And frankly, the idea of giving up never even occurred to Lee, he just firmly thought that maybe the trainees could get a break once in a while. So, Lee got up, slowly, the trials of the past few minutes, which turned out to be more like 15 minutes (turns out pulling up a girl just under your weight while being critically injured takes a while), and the adrenaline draining out of his system had severely exhausted him. Kai looked much better off, though her shoulder also seemed to be very dislocated as well. Although as he watched, she tied some rope around her shoulder, fiddled with it, then grasping some of it in her mouth and hand, jerked it to the left, letting out a gasp and an audible pop where her shoulder had been forced back into position.

Kai looked at him wearily, flicked a shuriken at the pillar with her foot, which brought a smile to his face that she matched, and they slowly made their way across, with multiple sets of harnesses, large amounts of rope, and Kai carrying him bits and pieces of the way.

And once they got to the end they had been chewed out: For not using the rope to increase the range of the wire attached to the shuriken, for not using multiple wires and shuriken for strength, extra length, for supporting themselves, for not thinking about their difference in weight, for Kai not tightening her harness, for Kai to not cut herself loose and letting Lee continue, for Lee letting a knife cut his face, for not cutting his wire and letting Kai fall (the only criticism that Lee vehemently opposed though he was too tired to show it), for not using his rope to help anchor himself on the platform, for not using any of his tools to make the hole in the platform, for not cutting Kai loose when he was on the platform (the floor had only been maybe 15ft below the platform), and they were called fools and idiots and mentally retarded and worse, all of it accompanied by expert medical attention and the rough cuffs and slaps of the Trainers. And finally one of them gave a score for their partner training, a measly 3 out of 10, the lowest anyone had gotten, and they were told they got 1 point between the two of them for not giving up and two points for their inventive way of avoiding the projectiles. Lee barely processed this news, instead he smiled at Kai, exhausted and she smiled back, grateful.

That memory occupied Lee's attention for 5 minutes before he came back to the darkness, and he screamed again, not for help this time, but because he had momentarily forgotten where he was, and now he was back. And then he screamed for help, or tried to, but it turned out his throat was too raw and tired to manage a real proper scream, and so Rock Lee hung his head limply, thinking about Kai and pillars and cutting wires loose. And that was when it hit him, this pain was just making him stronger, or, well, he didn't feel stronger, and he was crying again, but it would eventually make him stronger, right?

Rock Lee cried in the darkness.

Author Notes:

Okay, Part 1 of the Torture. Let me know if you guys are understanding what is happening. I have a huge fear that I will describe shit, in detail, and then someone will just go: "What the fuck just happened?" And then sad feelings. So many sad feelings. So let me know! I actually love criticism more than praise (though I will take either), so please say whatever. I changed a couple of things, you may have noticed. 1. PNL = Ri. Her name is Ri, not Rin (I apparently fucked this up, thanks for catching that BlueGlass 54. 2. Lee is now 6 or 7 years old, not 4. 3. He has been in Root for 3 months when this chapter starts, not 1 month. 4. I don't know why the fuck my text is all messed up. I wish I could make it have more spacing and larger text, but I don't know how to fix that. If you have a suggestion, please let me know, and I will try it. Cause I want this to be at least sort of visually appealing.

Thanks to AJ Katon, kage-sensei, Nappy Boy Rep, LeexSaku Rocks, BlueGlass54, and everyone else for the reviews, favorites, comments, taking time to read this stuff. Also, somebody said that Lee was thinking in ways that are a bit too intelligent, verbose, and above his paygrade. I tend to describe thoughts, rather than literally put them on page. So when I say that Lee, "ruminated briefly on how ruined and mangled his hand must be" he doesn't actually use the word "ruminated" cause he doesn't know that word. But I do, and I use it because it accurately conveys what he is doing. Also, I am kinda of the belief that if you force a kid to survive on his own wits and power from an early age, he will be unnervingly observant in some ways, but still super stupid in other ways. Hopefully that comes through in this a bit more.

Also, good news. I did this in about a week. So I expect that might become fairly normal. I'll be shooting for weekly updates, and if I fuck up, feel free to bombard me with messages/reviews complaining.


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